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Berserker Nerf

I understand what you're trying to say about berserker being nerfed, but its not like the nerfs completely wiped out any viability for berserker to play on higher difficulties. In actuality the nerfs kept those reckless zerk play styles in check, and encourage actual cooperation and coordination with your team. Rather than running off solo and being a liability to your team. Given that zerk received the hemoclobber it made those reckless play styles more worse. As a zerk main myself, sure the nerfs were tough, but as long as you work as a team, time your attacks/blocks, and understand how each enemy should be engaged; then the nerfs would not be bad as it seems.
 
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I still struggle to understand how y'all (especially ZERK MAINS) manage to play in a way that makes the perk feels underpowered. If we have a quick recap, here's what the perk can do better :

-Mobility : being the only perk able to escape a clot's grab means it's far harder to get boxed in as a zerk. You're also naturally faster, and unless you go for the heavier weapons or lots of upgrades, your weapons are almost all pretty light. This means you can escape more easily... or go for hit-and-run strategies, which is honestly what you should usually do if you want to avoid getting mauled (you're the most likely to survive such a scenario, but even the berserker ain't invincible)

-Tanking : no matter which skills you choose, a zerk often have the best survivability around, except maybe for a Medic/Survivalist (under different circumstances). You can either have double the HP or slowly regenerate. You could also choose to heal on kill, although doing more damage is often preferred. The parry mechanic is a STAPLE of the perk, being able to tank much more damage than any perk without such an ability (that's to say : nearly all of them). If you pick the "Parry" skill, you'll get even more benefit from it, both offensively and defensively. If you got a medic on your ass, you're damn near invincible. And even without one, you'll often be able to escape most fights unless you're biting more than you can chew.

-Crowd Control : it's arguably one of the best perk to CC with. He has EMP grenades to bring zeds to a crawl. He can stumble zeds, even bigger ones, with a lot of his weapons. He can stun-lock quite reliably with many weapons too.

-Arsenal : like most, if not all, perks in 2023, he has access to a wide array of weaponry that are usually quite stupidly efficient. The Pulverizer is as great as ever to take down Fleshpounds, and it has great stumble power. The Bonecrusher allows you to push back quite a few zeds, and defend against attacks much better than by parrying with other tools. The VLAD is a quite formidable weapon that has very little ammo consumption if you can score your headshots. And while the Teslauncher has no rights being a Zerk weapon, it's an absolute facemelter.

-Dosh : quite obviously, with such an emphasis on melee combat, you're bound to spend far less money on restocking your ammo. To compensate, the zerk's weapons are often a little bit more expensive... But not overly so, meaning you often have a little more dosh than your allies do.

The only weakness I can think of regarding the zerk is against some zeds which are devastating at closer ranges. Namely the Siren and the Husk. It is true that, unless you have a sidearm (like the Vlad), those zeds will give you a hard time, and put you in a potentially dangerous position. The EDARs have a similar issue, but it's mostly due to the fact you can't really aim precisely straight to their weakpoint.

One must realize that the zerk is actually not meant to be a killing machine, even though its DPS can be quite scary. A high-level zerk with the right skills and weapons can be a force to be respected, but it's role is still mostly to incapacitate the zed horde AND act as a distraction for its team. Its ability to tank and swim around the battlefield are both tailored for that. And while I could find examples of "tank archetypes" in video games that are also dangerously powerful, their common denominator is often to protect their team more than to get the highest killstreak. As such, I honestly don't see the Zerk as being weak, far from it.
 
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I honestly don't see the Zerk as being weak, far from it.
Yeah, this.

Berserker is less easy to use than it was before, but there's a reason why everyone recommended it as the "how do I get my HoE achievements" perk: it was by far the easiest perk to win with even if you weren't that good at it because of how spongy it was.

It was the leading cause of 40-minute kites when teams should've otherwise wiped, and so forth.
 
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Berserker has been nerfed WAY TO HARD!!
If anything, I feel the first perk ( Skirmisher) being reduced from 2 points every second to 2 point every second , would have been enough…. I’m a die hard Berserker fan and after the nerf,,, sadness
Skirmisher is still the strongest perk choice, and even moreso now that you need to incorporate ranged weapons into your playstyle. The Teslalauncher in particular is a pretty good trash cleaner and its synergy with Vampire allows you to treat it as an emergency medkit.

What the Berserker needs IMO is a perk gun that's cheap enough to buy on Wave 2 that doesn't require real-world money to use, so as to allow him to thin out hordes to make them easier to melee. But my suggestion's gonna detract from DLC sales, wouldn't it?
 
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Skirmisher is still the strongest perk choice, and even moreso now that you need to incorporate ranged weapons into your playstyle. The Teslalauncher in particular is a pretty good trash cleaner and its synergy with Vampire allows you to treat it as an emergency medkit.

What the Berserker needs IMO is a perk gun that's cheap enough to buy on Wave 2 that doesn't require real-world money to use, so as to allow him to thin out hordes to make them easier to melee. But my suggestion's gonna detract from DLC sales, wouldn't it?
The Vlad has been there since the very first day my guy
 
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The Vlad has been there since the very first day my guy
It does cost more than a standard T2 because shotguns in general cost more because of how strong they are (see also: Double-Barreled Boomstick) but that's not a bad thing because the gun is so strong it will last you until the end of the game.

You might need to overcompensate for kills on Wave 2 or ask for a minor donation.

...now that you need to incorporate ranged weapons into your playstyle.
There was never a reason not to use at least one ranged weapon the entire time this game has been running, since there have always been ranged weapons in Zerk's arsenal. Double-dipping on melee in a game where you start with a melee and get better ones anyway is completely redundant, even when considering stuff like the Battle Axe. (Years ago when the BA was released I would've made an exception because the BA on release killed everything in 1-2 hits no matter what, but thankfully those days are long gone.)

That doesn't really apply to early game because early-game waves are easy enough to manage with just the Crovel and 9mm; I'd say until about Wave 3-4 since that's when QPs become a regular feature and while you can get one at a time with just a Crovel, it's going to suck if you get more than one.

What the Berserker needs IMO...
Stop. Don't do this again. The melee perk does not need more guns. I've worn out that particular rolled-up newspaper and I'm sick of it.

No matter how many times people tell you to stop doing this with the "Wave 2 Berserker is underpowered and unfair" (and you only seem to care about Wave 2 and literally nothing else) nonsense, you never stop and I'm getting really, really sick of it. As though Berserker still isn't ridiculous.

Not everyone gets their best stuff on Wave 2. Having to delay insta-buying everything on Wave 2 to save up for actual good weapons that will last you until endgame is not only doable, it's recommended practice, even in CD and HoE.

Once again, if you can't live without the Piranha Pistols, drop down a difficulty or learn to play without them. If you get mad at the Piranha Pistols but aren't willing to say anything about how ridiculous the Frost Fang is, don't bother. You're the only person trying to die on this hill and I'm sick of having to talk to the metaphorical brick wall about it.
 
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Once again, if you can't live without the Piranha Pistols, drop down a difficulty or learn to play without them. If you get mad at the Piranha Pistols but aren't willing to say anything about how ridiculous the Frost Fang is, don't bother. You're the only person trying to die on this hill and I'm sick of having to talk to the metaphorical brick wall about it.
Once again, reaching a certain skill level with the Berserker doesn't magically reduce the effective killing power of a low-cost high damage 3 penetration sidearm. Just admit that you want the melee class to be reliant on in-app purchases to carry him through the early game.

Even if you can time your parries correctly, you can still take huge chunk of damage if you're eating hits from hordes at full strength. You'll definitely want to shoot them to reduce the number of hits you eat at a given melee encounter, which isn't an option in wave 2 unless you buy DLC

Again, because the KF2 community seems to be in the mindset of "Tripwire needs to sell DLC", should it be any surprise that the Piranha Pistol's P2W status gave way for the SWAT's acquisition of the G36c, or the Sharpshooter the Storm Cannon?

And let's say that my early game is such that I don't need the Piranha. It doesn't make the weapon any less strong, rather the Berserker in question simply learned how to play around a disadvantage, which you can totally do with other perks too
 
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Once again, reaching a certain skill level with the Berserker doesn't magically reduce the effective killing power of a low-cost high damage 3 penetration sidearm.
Just admit that you want the melee class to be reliant on in-app purchases to carry him through the early game.
Never mind that these are arguing two different things, but the second one is flat-out wrong, both from a personal and mechanical perspective. I don't like in-app purchases period (I like paying for my games once and then never again, just like the days of the NES), but it's nice that none of the perks need paid DLC to win the game, be it solo or 6 players. That is why I keep saying that the Berserker doesn't need DLC to carry them through the game unless the Berserker is bad at the game. In which case they should not play Berserker.

You don't have to be as good as Fat Cat to even accomplish this, but hey, look at that: Wave 2 with the Katana and faked players and the only time he gets halfway dead is when he's completely surrounded while getting Bloat bile-d (which would've killed any other non-Medic or Survivalist class twice over).

The class is not that hard, nor is the game. I don't need to rush Wave 2 weapons on any perk because I am confident enough in my skills with most perks that I don't need them outside of very specific CD tables, and I don't need Wave 2 guns on Berserker because even without Butcher you can reach instakill thresholds with heavy swings to proc Vampire when things die. Berserker's survivability early game more than makes up for having to do Wave 2 with a melee weapon; if you haven't noticed, that's why people keep playing it.

And even if you can't get 750 by Wave 2 (which is absolutely doable), that doesn't mean you're dead in the water. I've been doing it since before the nerfs and I'll keep doing it anyway because cheesing 2 waves as Berserker to save money and switch for another perk is still a completely viable strategy.

But I know you're not going to listen, so this is for anyone else who cares; you're not going to listen and you never will, because you remain convinced that the sole factor destabilizing this game is the Piranha Pistols and so every bad thing that happens to the player base is because most of thought the PPs were pretty underwhelming tbh

Again, because the KF2 community seems to be in the mindset of "Tripwire needs to sell DLC"
I...don't? DLC is dumb to begin with, but again: you don't need them to win. Not that I see most players even using them in the first place, shared or not, because they'd rather upgrade their katanas in the games I've been on.

should it be any surprise that the Piranha Pistol's P2W status gave way for the SWAT's acquisition of the G36c, or the Sharpshooter the Storm Cannon?
The G36c is dumb in the context of SWAT but it's one of the least concerning weapons as far as the entire game goes, and you can still totally do fine without it on SWAT (TTK isn't really much different from the Kriss, you just use less bullets sometimes) unless you're talking about bosses, in which case you can do what everyone else has done for ages and just not play SWAT on bosses because it wasn't designed as a boss fighter. Again: not really what I'd call pay-2-win.

The Storm Cannon is also dumb, but funny thing: I haven't seen anyone in pub games use it since it came out of the beta. Mostly that's because it's a Sharpshooter weapon that still requires headshots, meaning 95% of the playerbase will automatically skip ever trying it out on anything past Hard. The only weapon anyone cares about on Sharp in pubs is the (undeservedly) buffed Beluga Beat because it's a spam weapon on the spam perk. The Storm Cannon is pretty P2W, but because it's on Sharpshooter, nobody cares.

the Berserker in question simply learned how to play around a disadvantage, which you can totally do with other perks too
Which all the perks have had to do and continue to do because it's expected of players in harder difficulties, because not doing so sets you back for better weapons. Risk vs. reward. Commandos and Sharpshooters having an endgame weapon by Wave 3 (AK-12, M14) have been a thing for years now, and that entails skipping buys on Wave 2 because it sets you back enough money that doing so would be a mistake.

Berserker is not uniquely persecuted because its primary Fleshpound-killer weapon can be bought on wave 2 for 750 instead of 1100.
 
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I believe Berserker's Nerf was because of Hemoclobber, than necessarily the Berserker itself. Of course, there were matches where the Berseker was running alone across the map, harming all players and making them take care of all the problems, I know it's annoying as hell, but this happened frequently because of Hemoclobber (which has already been nerfed).

Nowadays it's bad for you to take the Berserker and do a Tank, you are very fragile! Mainly because you won't always be playing with your friends, you end up playing with random people and there, my friend, anything can happen! And people are forgetting the difficult maps, because I see a lot of people, a lot! Playing only Spillway, which is a very easy map, go play on a locked map to see what happens, you are destroyed. I believe they should leave it the way it is, but increasing the Berserker's resistance a little, the skills there were good to prevent players from running around the entire map. Remembering that here in Brazil, people don't play Berserker or Survivalist so much, they prefer to be running or being alone, with SWAT and Gunsliger, and they play very well!

And honestly? They should create a new difficulty, you know? It's easy? Create a new difficulty! I already know how I could do this:
Suggestion 1 - In this new difficulty, each wave is a different Weekly Mode.
Suggestion 2 - In this new difficulty, they could make the Zeds stronger and increase the amount of them, including increasing difficult Zeds (Husk, Robot, Siren... and less Clot).
 
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I believe Berserker's Nerf was because of Hemoclobber, than necessarily the Berserker itself.
While yes the hemoclobber was a problem in itself, however it's not the main reason why berserker was nerfed. Before the nerfs, berserker was basically a one man army capable to carry waves when the team should have been wiped. Berserker already has the mobility that outpaces most perks and enemies. Durability in forms of extra health or passive healing and damage resistances to tank high damage and save team mates from a raging flesh/quarter pounds. Better financial flexibility to invest in weapons/upgrades early or team mates. The versatility in its arsenal to handle both weaker and stronger enemies. Parrying mechanic and parry skill that greatly improves offensive and defensive abilities, although lower skill players may not utilize it as much to their advantage. Not to mention the EMP grenades berserker has to slow or prevent enemies from raging and/or using their attacks, only be out beaten by the stun and freeze grenade. With all of this in mind, its no wonder why players liked pre-nerf berserker since they can go solo during a team game without any consequences most of the time. There was a reason why berserker was mostly chosen for players looking to achieve suicidal and HoE related challenges and achievements.
Nowadays it's bad for you to take the Berserker and do a Tank, you are very fragile! Mainly because you won't always be playing with your friends, you end up playing with random people and there, my friend, anything can happen!
Berserker is in no way fragile even with the nerfs. When the nerfs did came it kept those reckless 'everything should revolve around me' or 'aim for the highest kills no matter the cost' play styles in check and actually enforce cooperation and coordination. If you see yourself thinking that berserker is "very fragile" then maybe you're just taking unnecessary damage, have been reliant on a medic, or not the perk as effectively. While randoms players can be unpredictable and be a pain at times, you still have to adapt to any circumstances to still be effective.
And people are forgetting the difficult maps, because I see a lot of people, a lot! Playing only Spillway, which is a very easy map, go play on a locked map to see what happens, you are destroyed. I believe they should leave it the way it is, but increasing the Berserker's resistance a little, the skills there were good to prevent players from running around the entire map. Remembering that here in Brazil, people don't play Berserker or Survivalist so much, they prefer to be running or being alone, with SWAT and Gunsliger, and they play very well!
The maps themselves can't be a reason why berserker is seen as weak, since each map can be beaten with the right team composition and cooperation with some maps requiring more environmental awareness and positioning. Many players choose maps like Spillway or Elysium since it provides either a large open area to kite easily and not require much awareness, or have a power position where a non-ranged enemy can't attack from behind and manipulate the spawns to your advantage. The reason why you see more SWATs and Gunslingers because SWAT has great control crowd through volume of fire and range to keep enemies from hitting them; and good takedown abilities on scrakes and pounds with weapons like the kriss, nailgun, and stun grenades respectively. Gunslinger has great mobility to escape from danger easily and high DPS output to take out larger enemies with ease. Also have good short and long range capabilities. With all of this, there is no reason for players to choose berserker (given berserker already has great abilities on it own as mentioned earlier) since you have to been up front on their faces for most of the time and tank a lot of damage in which those players may seem it has unnecessary damage taken. When they can straight up land a headshot with ease without the headache to constantly watch your health.
And honestly? They should create a new difficulty, you know? It's easy? Create a new difficulty! I already know how I could do this:
Suggestion 1 - In this new difficulty, each wave is a different Weekly Mode.
Suggestion 2 - In this new difficulty, they could make the Zeds stronger and increase the amount of them, including increasing difficult Zeds (Husk, Robot, Siren... and less Clot).
This new difficulty based on the suggestions mentioned would not work and let me explain why. A weekly mode on each wave is just RNG and high skilled players that either play HoE+ or CD will downright be put off by this since they prefer matches that in flow in a consistent pace and do this by limiting as much RNG as they can. Also some perks will just not perform as great as others and not able to fulfill their role properly on certain weeklies. Example being a berserker trying to play on 'Boom' mutation on wave 1 or 2; or a firebug trying to get a kill on 'cranium cracker' mutation. Given were already in the topic berserker, the second suggestion will not work since berserker is generally not suited well to face a husk or even a siren in some cases. The husk can use their flamethrower and kill a berserker in quick succession. If another player happens to lower their health enough, they decide to run up to you and commit a suicide attack while you're not paying attention. EDARs are hated because of their bad design and the armor they have just being a TTK boost so more of them will just be a hindrance for the wrong reasons. For a berserker player they're will be even more of a nuisance since you can't hit their chest cores as consistent and you have to deal with more of them in this new difficulty.
 
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While yes the hemoclobber was a problem in itself, however it's not the main reason why berserker was nerfed. Before the nerfs, berserker was basically a one man army capable to carry waves when the team should have been wiped. Berserker already has the mobility that outpaces most perks and enemies. Durability in forms of extra health or passive healing and damage resistances to tank high damage and save team mates from a raging flesh/quarter pounds. Better financial flexibility to invest in weapons/upgrades early or team mates. The versatility in its arsenal to handle both weaker and stronger enemies. Parrying mechanic and parry skill that greatly improves offensive and defensive abilities, although lower skill players may not utilize it as much to their advantage. Not to mention the EMP grenades berserker has to slow or prevent enemies from raging and/or using their attacks, only be out beaten by the stun and freeze grenade. With all of this in mind, its no wonder why players liked pre-nerf berserker since they can go solo during a team game without any consequences most of the time. There was a reason why berserker was mostly chosen for players looking to achieve suicidal and HoE related challenges and achievements.

Berserker is in no way fragile even with the nerfs. When the nerfs did came it kept those reckless 'everything should revolve around me' or 'aim for the highest kills no matter the cost' play styles in check and actually enforce cooperation and coordination. If you see yourself thinking that berserker is "very fragile" then maybe you're just taking unnecessary damage, have been reliant on a medic, or not the perk as effectively. While randoms players can be unpredictable and be a pain at times, you still have to adapt to any circumstances to still be effective.

The maps themselves can't be a reason why berserker is seen as weak, since each map can be beaten with the right team composition and cooperation with some maps requiring more environmental awareness and positioning. Many players choose maps like Spillway or Elysium since it provides either a large open area to kite easily and not require much awareness, or have a power position where a non-ranged enemy can't attack from behind and manipulate the spawns to your advantage. The reason why you see more SWATs and Gunslingers because SWAT has great control crowd through volume of fire and range to keep enemies from hitting them; and good takedown abilities on scrakes and pounds with weapons like the kriss, nailgun, and stun grenades respectively. Gunslinger has great mobility to escape from danger easily and high DPS output to take out larger enemies with ease. Also have good short and long range capabilities. With all of this, there is no reason for players to choose berserker (given berserker already has great abilities on it own as mentioned earlier) since you have to been up front on their faces for most of the time and tank a lot of damage in which those players may seem it has unnecessary damage taken. When they can straight up land a headshot with ease without the headache to constantly watch your health.

This new difficulty based on the suggestions mentioned would not work and let me explain why. A weekly mode on each wave is just RNG and high skilled players that either play HoE+ or CD will downright be put off by this since they prefer matches that in flow in a consistent pace and do this by limiting as much RNG as they can. Also some perks will just not perform as great as others and not able to fulfill their role properly on certain weeklies. Example being a berserker trying to play on 'Boom' mutation on wave 1 or 2; or a firebug trying to get a kill on 'cranium cracker' mutation. Given were already in the topic berserker, the second suggestion will not work since berserker is generally not suited well to face a husk or even a siren in some cases. The husk can use their flamethrower and kill a berserker in quick succession. If another player happens to lower their health enough, they decide to run up to you and commit a suicide attack while you're not paying attention. EDARs are hated because of their bad design and the armor they have just being a TTK boost so more of them will just be a hindrance for the wrong reasons. For a berserker player they're will be even more of a nuisance since you can't hit their chest cores as consistent and you have to deal with more of them in this new difficulty.

Yes, I understand that Berserker has many advantages, but the problem is that if you nerf him a lot, sometimes it doesn't pay to get a Perk that you have to get close to danger, you know? I believe he deserved a Nerf, but I don't think it's worth playing with him. Here in Brazil, the Perks that people use to play alone, did you know that you are not Berserker? It's Gunsliger and SWAT, they can survive alone, what's the secret? The Gunsliger is fast and strong, the SWAT he can stun and kill enemies, the guys know how to handle themselves well, it's not much different from the standard, one day I'll record it and show it to you here.

What I'm saying is that it's not worth it to punch enemies, it's too risky to try to tank on Zeds, and random players are unpredictable, causing you to face problems because you're in front line, and honestly it's not rewarding you to stay on the front line. I saw a lot of examples of people wanting to point out some skill of some Perk, playing with a whole team of professionals (all friends), and that's a little unfair because you know the way each one plays there, and you can easily create a situation that will give you a benefit. But I believe the Nerf was good, I just think they should increase the Berserker's defense a little.

It's just that there are maps that can be more beneficial for the player, and Spillway is one of them, put a Berserker tank to hold the Zeds in a door, and you won't have any problems, and I believe that this can overshadow the eyes a little, especially if it's done with professional players, because if you get to play on a difficult map, you have a high chance of losing. All the Perks are very good, and now the Nerf was Berserker and Medic, in the future it will be a Gunsliger because he can run incredibly fast, and so on, it's an endless cycle that, as you yourself suggest about adaptations, people will start playing with other Perks too:

Let them try to adapt to the difficulty, there's an infinity of Perks with an infinity of weapons, I'm not trying to be fair, it's a difficulty that the player has to deal with, because this wave of nerfs that's happening isn't cool, folks I don't understand where you want to go with this, do you want difficulty? What do you want after all? People are messing with Perks and Nerfing them due to the experience of some professionals, but some tests in my view are not being based correctly, due to the use of professional groups and not random people in these tests, and now recently with the Doctor's Nerf update, people are complaining on STEAM because of this, and I believe they are messing with things that shouldn't be messed with, but some Nerfs do need to be done! But I feel the change is a bit drastic and rather than matching other Perks, myself and a bunch of people at STEAM are looking at this as a way to "make the Perk unusable", rather than "matching" with other Perks, and the game It's starting to get boring with these changes. I'll be extremely honest, I've been playing KF2 since 2016, and I came here on the forum for the first time now, to make a complaint along with people who are also finding it bad, because that's not what people are asking for the game, read here what they want:
 
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Yes, I understand that Berserker has many advantages, but the problem is that if you nerf him a lot, sometimes it doesn't pay to get a Perk that you have to get close to danger, you know? I believe he deserved a Nerf, but I don't think it's worth playing with him.
It does pay to get close to danger as berserker since that is their design to be able to tank damage and allow extra breathing room for perks that lack close range capabilities. Even if close range combat is not situational in certain cases you can use ranged weapons such the vlad or teslalaucher to clear up groups of enemies so you don't get easily surrounded.
Here in Brazil, the Perks that people use to play alone, did you know that you are not Berserker? It's Gunsliger and SWAT, they can survive alone, what's the secret? The Gunsliger is fast and strong, the SWAT he can stun and kill enemies, the guys know how to handle themselves well, it's not much different from the standard, one day I'll record it and show it to you here.
Berserker can outpace a gunslinger and dish out high damage. Berserker can use their EMP grenades to prevent enemies from attacking and/or rage. Another thing is the parrying mechanic and skill that berserker can greatly use to take less damage and deal the same amount of it, and is something that Gunslinger and SWAT can't do. An example would be a group of pounds are raging at you, the berserker can easily keep parrying to de-rage them and not take a considerable amount of damage, and allow extra space between you and them. Whereas a Gunslinger or SWAT has to aim for headshots with their skullcracker or cripple skill to slow them down and it won't de-rage them. Which is unable to provide any extra breathing room and will take a considerable amount of damage when they get hit since their parry resistance is not as high.
What I'm saying is that it's not worth it to punch enemies, it's too risky to try to tank on Zeds, and random players are unpredictable, causing you to face problems because you're in front line, and honestly it's not rewarding you to stay on the front line. I saw a lot of examples of people wanting to point out some skill of some Perk, playing with a whole team of professionals (all friends), and that's a little unfair because you know the way each one plays there, and you can easily create a situation that will give you a benefit.
Saying that killing enemies, tanking damage, and being unrewarding is not worth it to be in the front lines as a berserker is absurd. I understand that randoms can be unpredictable and cause problems for yourself and the team. That is something you just have keep in mind and adjust to it. The reason you see friends play together professionally is because they have the in-game knowledge and experience to understand how each role will be played and deal with enemies. Which able to create such great synergy and flow of the game even in the most chaotic events. That is something you just won't see in randoms players most of time especially the experiences you're facing in Brazil. I'm sure there is a dedicated group of players in your region that wants other players to play together and create great cooperation, instead of having to deal with unreliable randoms.
I just think they should increase the Berserker's defense a little.
While a bit of extra damage resistance would be nice for berserker, however this can potentially cause other problems. For example, a firebug main sees berserker getting some buffs they might think, "Since they're getting buffs, why not I get small buffs on my weapon/skills!" This create another cycle of players wanting small buffs which in time could create an unbalanced playing field.
It's just that there are maps that can be more beneficial for the player, and Spillway is one of them, put a Berserker tank to hold the Zeds in a door, and you won't have any problems
The same can be said for any map that has doors since a well positioned team can have a berserker to holdout in front of a door depending if the position they're in is ideal. Regardless how difficult maps can be they can still be beaten.
All the Perks are very good, and now the Nerf was Berserker and Medic, in the future it will be a Gunsliger because he can run incredibly fast, and so on, it's an endless cycle that, as you yourself suggest about adaptations, people will start playing with other Perks too
This is the not case, berserker can outrun a gunslinger as mentioned earlier. Medic can still use their adrenaline shot (or combatant doctor, although you should be the left side skills anyways) skill to provide themselves with extra mobility when self-healing and/or using symbiotic health skill to stack a nice 30% extra movement speed. Which is enough to let yourself and your team mates escape from danger. Gunslinger most likely will not get nerfed since it requires headshots to be effective as well as sharpshooter which is why not many low-skill players will not take the time to improve their precision and rather choose their spammy weapons such as the beluga beat, spitfires, or winterbites. This in itself will not create an endless cycle of players trying other perks because of their favorite perk was nerfed.
Let them try to adapt to the difficulty, there's an infinity of Perks with an infinity of weapons, I'm not trying to be fair, it's a difficulty that the player has to deal with, because this wave of nerfs that's happening isn't cool, folks I don't understand where you want to go with this, do you want difficulty? What do you want after all? People are messing with Perks and Nerfing them due to the experience of some professionals, but some tests in my view are not being based correctly, due to the use of professional groups and not random people in these tests, and now recently with the Doctor's Nerf update, people are complaining on STEAM because of this, and I believe they are messing with things that shouldn't be messed with, but some Nerfs do need to be done! But I feel the change is a bit drastic and rather than matching other Perks, myself and a bunch of people at STEAM are looking at this as a way to "make the Perk unusable", rather than "matching" with other Perks, and the game It's starting to get boring with these changes. I'll be extremely honest, I've been playing KF2 since 2016, and I came here on the forum for the first time now, to make a complaint along with people who are also finding it bad, because that's not what people are asking for the game, read here what they want
I've read through some of the comments on that thread and most of it is absolutely laughable. Just because medic passive movement speed per level, symbiotic health, resilience, and healthrower are receiving nerfs is not like the perk is destroyed. I will say the symbiotic health nerf seems odd since it incentivizes player to heal, nevertheless if it did needed a nerf I'll rather reduce the self-healing to 5%. The resilience nerf is a nice addition to deter anyone deciding to be a combat medic on a team game and focus the main purpose of the perk, which is to heal players! As I mentioned earlier the reason why berserker was nerfed is he was capable to clutch last man standing and so did medic. No one wants to wait more than 15 minutes on a single berserker or medic clutching a round. If the team play is not there then there is no point in winning the match. Medic will still have the mobility, survivability, and buffs to keep themselves and most importantly the team alive. The nerfs on healthrower were necessary since it allows medics to handle trash with ease and without having to aim. Given the buffs provided on the left side of the skill tree it gave the medic to group heal easily without having to throw a medic grenade or use the 501, thus giving unparalleled healing, mobility, and durability to all players with little to no risk compared to other weapons in its arsenal. If you believe that the use of professional groups to justify the nerfs needed is not correct then I don't know what to tell you. These groups allow to provide constructive feedback based on the knowledge and experience they have to make the game be more team-oriented and fair to justify these changes. Compared to a group of random players that can't comprehend how balancing works in a game let alone how to play in a effective team together.
 
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I believe Berserker's Nerf was because of Hemoclobber, than necessarily the Berserker itself. Of course, there were matches where the Berseker was running alone across the map, harming all players and making them take care of all the problems, I know it's annoying as hell, but this happened frequently because of Hemoclobber (which has already been nerfed).

Nowadays it's bad for you to take the Berserker and do a Tank, you are very fragile! Mainly because you won't always be playing with your friends, you end up playing with random people and there, my friend, anything can happen! And people are forgetting the difficult maps, because I see a lot of people, a lot! Playing only Spillway, which is a very easy map, go play on a locked map to see what happens, you are destroyed. I believe they should leave it the way it is, but increasing the Berserker's resistance a little, the skills there were good to prevent players from running around the entire map. Remembering that here in Brazil, people don't play Berserker or Survivalist so much, they prefer to be running or being alone, with SWAT and Gunsliger, and they play very well!
Cramped maps are harder to win in general, not just as a zerk. Hell, it's probably harder for demos and sharps, who don't have access to a broader sightline and can't fallback as easily. Unlike the first game which greatly favored camping, KF2 invites you to move a lot more, even if it's just in a wider zone that your team chose to defend.
As I've explained in a previous post, the zerk is nowhere near as fragile as you might think. But it's not invincible, that's for sure. And you're encouraged to take more risks as most of your arsenal is melee-focused. But that's exactly where YOU SHOULD BE. Because you gotta tank that damage to protect your team (you're the best perk for the job. Even other tankish perks like the medic and SWAT don't have as many tools as you have, namely extra speed, EMP nades, parries, health-buffing skills, the capability to stun and stumble etc... All in one package. Most perks have only one or two of those at best)

Although it would be tempting to think of a perk called "berserker" as a mean killing machine, it's actually more of a support class. At least, it's a team player. You shouldn't really be going Rambo with it, and instead follow some sort of "combat dance" where you kite, parry, strike as needed. You should always be moving and distract zeds for your team to either fallback or take out.

And honestly? They should create a new difficulty, you know? It's easy? Create a new difficulty! I already know how I could do this:
Suggestion 1 - In this new difficulty, each wave is a different Weekly Mode.
Suggestion 2 - In this new difficulty, they could make the Zeds stronger and increase the amount of them, including increasing difficult Zeds (Husk, Robot, Siren... and less Clot).

I don't know if a new difficulty that brings all weeklies together would work that well... It sounds like a new weekly actually ! More so than a new difficulty. Some of them really makes sense when you play them from start to finish, while others aren't necessarily harder, they just bring a new flavour to the game. I wouldn't see it truly working to be honest, but it could be stupidly fun due to how chaotic it would be.

Your second suggestion is a bit more sound. I believe everybody and their mother's have been asking for an increased zed count by now, and some mods actually allow you to do just that. As for having harder zeds, I'd say yes but only if they get some sort of new capabilities or strengths. Just making them spongier would be boring as hell. Having harder waves sounds like a given, it's already what's happening with Quaterpounds being able to spawn quite early on harder difficulties. Being swarmed by clots and crawlers can lead to a pretty silly and infuriating death in all difficulties though... I wouldn't be against having lots of them still, especially if we increase the zed count.
 
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It does pay to get close to danger as berserker since that is their design to be able to tank damage and allow extra breathing room for perks that lack close range capabilities. Even if close range combat is not situational in certain cases you can use ranged weapons such the vlad or teslalaucher to clear up groups of enemies so you don't get easily surrounded.

Berserker can outpace a gunslinger and dish out high damage. Berserker can use their EMP grenades to prevent enemies from attacking and/or rage. Another thing is the parrying mechanic and skill that berserker can greatly use to take less damage and deal the same amount of it, and is something that Gunslinger and SWAT can't do. An example would be a group of pounds are raging at you, the berserker can easily keep parrying to de-rage them and not take a considerable amount of damage, and allow extra space between you and them. Whereas a Gunslinger or SWAT has to aim for headshots with their skullcracker or cripple skill to slow them down and it won't de-rage them. Which is unable to provide any extra breathing room and will take a considerable amount of damage when they get hit since their parry resistance is not as high.

Saying that killing enemies, tanking damage, and being unrewarding is not worth it to be in the front lines as a berserker is absurd. I understand that randoms can be unpredictable and cause problems for yourself and the team. That is something you just have keep in mind and adjust to it. The reason you see friends play together professionally is because they have the in-game knowledge and experience to understand how each role will be played and deal with enemies. Which able to create such great synergy and flow of the game even in the most chaotic events. That is something you just won't see in randoms players most of time especially the experiences you're facing in Brazil. I'm sure there is a dedicated group of players in your region that wants other players to play together and create great cooperation, instead of having to deal with unreliable randoms.

While a bit of extra damage resistance would be nice for berserker, however this can potentially cause other problems. For example, a firebug main sees berserker getting some buffs they might think, "Since they're getting buffs, why not I get small buffs on my weapon/skills!" This create another cycle of players wanting small buffs which in time could create an unbalanced playing field.

The same can be said for any map that has doors since a well positioned team can have a berserker to holdout in front of a door depending if the position they're in is ideal. Regardless how difficult maps can be they can still be beaten.

This is the not case, berserker can outrun a gunslinger as mentioned earlier. Medic can still use their adrenaline shot (or combatant doctor, although you should be the left side skills anyways) skill to provide themselves with extra mobility when self-healing and/or using symbiotic health skill to stack a nice 30% extra movement speed. Which is enough to let yourself and your team mates escape from danger. Gunslinger most likely will not get nerfed since it requires headshots to be effective as well as sharpshooter which is why not many low-skill players will not take the time to improve their precision and rather choose their spammy weapons such as the beluga beat, spitfires, or winterbites. This in itself will not create an endless cycle of players trying other perks because of their favorite perk was nerfed.

I've read through some of the comments on that thread and most of it is absolutely laughable. Just because medic passive movement speed per level, symbiotic health, resilience, and healthrower are receiving nerfs is not like the perk is destroyed. I will say the symbiotic health nerf seems odd since it incentivizes player to heal, nevertheless if it did needed a nerf I'll rather reduce the self-healing to 5%. The resilience nerf is a nice addition to deter anyone deciding to be a combat medic on a team game and focus the main purpose of the perk, which is to heal players! As I mentioned earlier the reason why berserker was nerfed is he was capable to clutch last man standing and so did medic. No one wants to wait more than 15 minutes on a single berserker or medic clutching a round. If the team play is not there then there is no point in winning the match. Medic will still have the mobility, survivability, and buffs to keep themselves and most importantly the team alive. The nerfs on healthrower were necessary since it allows medics to handle trash with ease and without having to aim. Given the buffs provided on the left side of the skill tree it gave the medic to group heal easily without having to throw a medic grenade or use the 501, thus giving unparalleled healing, mobility, and durability to all players with little to no risk compared to other weapons in its arsenal. If you believe that the use of professional groups to justify the nerfs needed is not correct then I don't know what to tell you. These groups allow to provide constructive feedback based on the knowledge and experience they have to make the game be more team-oriented and fair to justify these changes. Compared to a group of random players that can't comprehend how balancing works in a game let alone how to play in a effective team together.
You have to understand that doing this only fuels the selfishness of players who play alone. I just entered a match here after the new update (Medic nerf), and I already come across a Berserker player using a Teslalaucher, running across the entire map, Suicide mode players took 1 hour in the match, and that's it that I try to explain, other players will find other ways to do their selfish gambling.

And it's really not worth it. If you enter a random match, where nothing that happens there is a "controllable situation" like most flawed videos, you have a high chance of dying because of the randomness of the match, or because of the player, or because of respawn. I understand what you mean, I do it the same way as you suggest, but some of these changes seem to be a forced way for the player to die, than necessarily a balance (mainly for the match I saw recently, nothing changed, it just increased the selfishness of some).

Look, the situation you describe is a little different from mine, and I understand your side, but the things you suggest are, is it difficult to use melee weapons with a Berserker? Take a ranged weapon is a correct way to suggest it, I agree with you! The real problem is that Resistance is low for those who will fight the Zeds with melee weapons, but when it comes to long-distance weapons? There the Resistance is high and they hardly die. This subject is complicated, because depending on the situation, nothing they do will change anything, even after updating the game I already found a player doing something wrong, Berserker and Survivalist, they find different ways to make their games wrong, and this it's the problem! It ends up harming other players because of the mistake of some, and honestly? You're going to have to nerf a lot, because the situation hasn't changed (based on what I've played now in the new update).
 
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Cramped maps are harder to win in general, not just as a zerk. Hell, it's probably harder for demos and sharps, who don't have access to a broader sightline and can't fallback as easily. Unlike the first game which greatly favored camping, KF2 invites you to move a lot more, even if it's just in a wider zone that your team chose to defend.
As I've explained in a previous post, the zerk is nowhere near as fragile as you might think. But it's not invincible, that's for sure. And you're encouraged to take more risks as most of your arsenal is melee-focused. But that's exactly where YOU SHOULD BE. Because you gotta tank that damage to protect your team (you're the best perk for the job. Even other tankish perks like the medic and SWAT don't have as many tools as you have, namely extra speed, EMP nades, parries, health-buffing skills, the capability to stun and stumble etc... All in one package. Most perks have only one or two of those at best)

Although it would be tempting to think of a perk called "berserker" as a mean killing machine, it's actually more of a support class. At least, it's a team player. You shouldn't really be going Rambo with it, and instead follow some sort of "combat dance" where you kite, parry, strike as needed. You should always be moving and distract zeds for your team to either fallback or take out.



I don't know if a new difficulty that brings all weeklies together would work that well... It sounds like a new weekly actually ! More so than a new difficulty. Some of them really makes sense when you play them from start to finish, while others aren't necessarily harder, they just bring a new flavour to the game. I wouldn't see it truly working to be honest, but it could be stupidly fun due to how chaotic it would be.

Your second suggestion is a bit more sound. I believe everybody and their mother's have been asking for an increased zed count by now, and some mods actually allow you to do just that. As for having harder zeds, I'd say yes but only if they get some sort of new capabilities or strengths. Just making them spongier would be boring as hell. Having harder waves sounds like a given, it's already what's happening with Quaterpounds being able to spawn quite early on harder difficulties. Being swarmed by clots and crawlers can lead to a pretty silly and infuriating death in all difficulties though... I wouldn't be against having lots of them still, especially if we increase the zed count.
Again, in games where the players are random people, which is very different from the videos where people are trying to prove that the skills are unbalanced, you have to be aware that they are solo, with an infinitely smaller amount of Zeds than the online mode, and in a fully controlled situation, which perk will have a problem in this situation? None! The situation in an online one is very different, which then I recommend doing the tests to discuss the Nerf, because offline in a situation that I am controlling, I kill the Scrakes and Fleshpounds by sneezing.

About the Berserker player being on the front line, well, I just entered a game in the new update (Medic Nerf), the Nerfs are already applied to the Perks, and do you know what happened? The Berserker was running around the map with a ranged weapon, so I ask you, has anything changed? No, the Rambo's are still there, you just cast them to do something else, and force the other players who have absolutely nothing to do with it, into a Nerf that isn't ideal for a multiplayer mode that has troll people. Remembering that in Killing Floor 2, when you have a "planned team", the game is easy even in HOE, if you have a team that works, with Nerf or without Nerf, it's easy to win! The difference is that the game just got more boring, that's all.

Some Nerfs I consider good, because that gives a lot of advantage to some Perks, but I believe they should explore some weapons that are too strong compared to other weapons, you know? Because there are still Berserkers crazy about the game, and the Medic? They will probably switch to "Self Support" Skills, but HGR's Nerf was really good!

About the "New Difficulty", I'm not trying to be very fair in my opinion, because I don't have many problems with the game, I'm more complaining about some points of the Nerfs that I believe are a bit flawed (I joined the game today, there's a troll running around the map, nothing has changed, the game just got more boring), but if you bring waves with a different weekly mode, or with a greater amount of Zeds, make the game very difficult, you can send it to me that I am accepting that I will play and I will want to win, so any suggestion about a new difficulty I'll be accepting.
 
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Again, in games where the players are random people, which is very different from the videos where people are trying to prove that the skills are unbalanced, you have to be aware that they are solo, with an infinitely smaller amount of Zeds than the online mode, and in a fully controlled situation, which perk will have a problem in this situation? None! The situation in an online one is very different, which then I recommend doing the tests to discuss the Nerf, because offline in a situation that I am controlling, I kill the Scrakes and Fleshpounds by sneezing.

About the Berserker player being on the front line, well, I just entered a game in the new update (Medic Nerf), the Nerfs are already applied to the Perks, and do you know what happened? The Berserker was running around the map with a ranged weapon, so I ask you, has anything changed? No, the Rambo's are still there, you just cast them to do something else, and force the other players who have absolutely nothing to do with it, into a Nerf that isn't ideal for a multiplayer mode that has troll people. Remembering that in Killing Floor 2, when you have a "planned team", the game is easy even in HOE, if you have a team that works, with Nerf or without Nerf, it's easy to win! The difference is that the game just got more boring, that's all.

Some Nerfs I consider good, because that gives a lot of advantage to some Perks, but I believe they should explore some weapons that are too strong compared to other weapons, you know? Because there are still Berserkers crazy about the game, and the Medic? They will probably switch to "Self Support" Skills, but HGR's Nerf was really good!

About the "New Difficulty", I'm not trying to be very fair in my opinion, because I don't have many problems with the game, I'm more complaining about some points of the Nerfs that I believe are a bit flawed (I joined the game today, there's a troll running around the map, nothing has changed, the game just got more boring), but if you bring waves with a different weekly mode, or with a greater amount of Zeds, make the game very difficult, you can send it to me that I am accepting that I will play and I will want to win, so any suggestion about a new difficulty I'll be accepting.
HRG* Healthrower I'm talking about, this was a very good change!
 
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