The Zerdic: Making Berserker Useless

[Zeron]

*******EDIT******* I should really have changed the thread title to The Zerdic: Leveling Zerker Done Easy, because i did not intend to make people think that the medic is actually superior to the berserker at killing things. It is only better if you are less skilled and have a high medic perk and wish to level berserker easily. Sadly i don't think you can change a thread title once you've posted it. So you'll just have to stick with this disclaimer for now.



I know i am one of the guilty dozens who play this way just to level up berserker. You know why? Medic just plays berserker better than a berserker does.

Medic:

• Jesus Armor!
• Jesus Speed!
• Jesus self heals!(and hella more often too!)
• Katana!(Overpowered so can still decap easily in the hands of a medic!)
• Bloat bile reduction!(medics have it too, so they can be zerkers too!)

Zerker:

• 25% damage reduction at most...(piss poor)
• 100% more melee damage at most...(who needs it when you have a katana?)
• 25% faster attacks at most...(this is helpful but not necessary to own things)
• Bloat bile reduction!(see medic)
• Katana discount!(play zerker on the first wave, get a cheap katana, then switch to medic to get insanely cheap armor)
• Can't be grabbed by clots!(medic armor is so good you can just turn around and slash the clots off you anyways)
• ZED time bonus!(who....cares?)

And there you have it. a small list of most things the medic is superior to the zerker. So why does anyone play zerker? there isn't much of a point seeing as the medic can do a better job.


All i really want to do is raise some eyebrows and ask: WHY? why is the medic so good at what berserkers wish they could do? The zerker needs to be buffed in some manner, i won't go into details as this isn't the suggestion board. But we all know this is wrong and the zerker needs to be buffed.

And for those of you who think the chainsaw getting nerfed was the only drawback to zerker, you're wrong. If it was rebuffed, we'd just have zerdics with chainsaws instead of katanas. End of story.

 

[Johnny Darko]

Yeah, Medic is a bit too good at doing the Zerker's job. However, the doubled melee damage can really save you sometimes. One-hitting stuff like Husks and Gorefasts is pretty important to me.

 

[Deadbolt]

i gotta agree with u in the aspect of the majority of the people play medic when they wanna level beserker. i will admit i used zerdic multiple times, until a few weeks ago when i actually started playing the zerker perk again. i love the damage bonus, hit speed, and vulnerability to clot grabbing. idk i think its the swing speed and awesome zed time that leads me to think zerk > zerdic. on the occasion where im playing medic and pick up a katana i feel like i swing wayyy to slow and it just bothers me compared to beserker.

 

[Salad Snake]

I think zerk's damage output is fine (with a katana at least), he just needs an additional survivability boost. Perhaps an ability to buy two armor suits? Just like duel 9mm's the 2nd suit would cost weight and slow him slightly. But, it gives him 200 armor, which is thematically different from the medic's improved armor (though almost identical purpose-wise, it would make the zerker's bonus seem different from medic's).

Balance-wise, it means the zerker has to still watch his health, unlike what would happen if we just buffed his damage reduction. It also gives him another unique skill, and fits in with his medival/savage theme sorta since he's basically building a suit of armor outa bulletproof vests.

(Ok the last point is kinda a stretch, but still)

 

[synecdoche]

because the medic should be healing people, not running around with a katana and xbow. the beserker was made for it's own reason and so was the medic. Medic heals people, beserker kills stuff with melee weapons.

Maybe you should stop soloing and help out your team as medic.

 

[Zeron]

because the medic should be healing people, not running around with a katana and xbow. the beserker was made for it's own reason and so was the medic. Medic heals people, beserker kills stuff with melee weapons.

Maybe you should stop soloing and help out your team as medic.

Did you read the thread at all?

I'm not telling you how to be a Zerdic. i'm pointing out the weaknesses and strengths a medic has that makes medics superior berserkers. I am not for Zerdics. This kind of imbalance shouldn't even exist in the game, yet it does.

If you have a high level medic and a low level berserker, it makes sense to level your berserker by playing Zerdic since you have a lot more survivability. Since cross-perk leveling exists in this game(for some reason beyond me), you can't stop people from noticing that medic is almost infinitely superior in terms of survival than the berserker when leveling the perk.

and what you claim a perk SHOULD be doing, some people don't care about what they SHOULD be doing and just do whatever the hell they want to do anyways. Hell, they paid for the game.

 

[EricFong]

• ZED time bonus!(who....cares?)

I do, watching specimen being decapitated in slow mo make your adrenaline flow.

 

[Vaecrius]

The way I understand how the two perks' defence work:

The zerdic swings slow but moves fast and recovers from damage fast. This lets them get in, hit, and get out before they get hurt.

The zerker swings fast but moves a bit slower and doesn't recover from damage as fast... but the fast swinging is in conjunction with more damage plus zed time which will greatly increase a zerker's overall accuracy (and thus damage).

The second takes a lot more finesse and trust in your perk abilities than the first, which is characteristic of far more FPS melee weapon use outside of KF.

 

[driftwood]

my fav kit out for medic is xbow and katana. Any medic who just heals and does no/few kills isn't doing enough. Especially with how well medics can take damage. But if I plan on doing just katana-ing, I prefer to use beserk

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

because the medic should be healing people, not running around with a katana and xbow. the beserker was made for it's own reason and so was the medic. Medic heals people, beserker kills stuff with melee weapons.

Maybe you should stop soloing and help out your team as medic.

Oh get off your soap box and stop preaching. His point isn't that this is how a Medic should be playing, his point is that if you want to focus on Melee attacks, you're better-off using the Medic Perk instead of the Berserker Perk, despite the latter having been designed to use Melee weapons.

And besides, what do you expect a Medic is supposed to do when everyone is at full health? Sit in the corner and twiddle his thumbs? I think not. But whatever, this thread isn't about arguing the semantics of what the Medic "should" or "shouldn't" be doing. This is about the Medic perk being better at melee than the so-called "Melee" perk.

 

[HaTeMe]

Yeah, Medic is a bit too good at doing the Zerker's job. However, the doubled melee damage can really save you sometimes. One-hitting stuff like Husks and Gorefasts is pretty important to me.

You can one hit them with any perk, just aim to the head. Might require alt fire in some cases but nevertheless.

 

[synecdoche]

Oh get off your soap box and stop preaching. His point isn't that this is how a Medic should be playing, his point is that if you want to focus on Melee attacks, you're better-off using the Medic Perk instead of the Berserker Perk, despite the latter having been designed to use Melee weapons.

And besides, what do you expect a Medic is supposed to do when everyone is at full health? Sit in the corner and twiddle his thumbs? I think not. But whatever, this thread isn't about arguing the semantics of what the Medic "should" or "shouldn't" be doing. This is about the Medic perk being better at melee than the so-called "Melee" perk.

Yeah I guess I was being a little cranky with my last post. I just got an impression...but you're right. No point in arguing.

 

[Johnny Darko]

You can one hit them with any perk, just aim to the head. Might require alt fire in some cases but nevertheless.

Alt-fire isn't exactly the most practical thing ever at times, just saying.

 

[C_Gibby]

Alt-fire isn't exactly the most practical thing ever at times, just saying.

It's great for the opening attack, though. Just alt-fire once, do a big spike of damage and do "normal" hits after.

 

[Johnny Darko]

It's great for the opening attack, though. Just alt-fire once, do a big spike of damage and do "normal" hits after.

Well of course it is, I use it as my opener on things all the time.

 

[Genocider]

As someone who pre ordered this game a long while ago, I'll just say this much, the zerker is a great perk at level 6 and to be honest I prefer it to medic, but I won't lie the medic is great at survivability and being a zerker. But, in my opinion the fact that he can be grabbed by clots will get him killed where a zerker would probably have lived. The armor is nice but when you're on suicidal and trying to tank out the wave as the last guy or last 2 guys I'd rather be a zerker. Simply because you're nigh invulnerable other then those annoying husks that sometimes I wish never got put into this game. Heh, anyway I think what the medic needs is a speed reduction, he shouldn't be abled to run that damn fast as I know he needs to heal people, but with the mp7 his speed can be lowered. (It's dirt cheap). In my opinion the only touching up the zerker needs is something for his chainsaw, I remember how great that thing used to be but now it's just the katana. Anyway point is, I think the medic should be slowed down a bit, and the chainsaw should have a use, a balanced use that is, as in say being a bit better then the katana but with the weight slowing you down alot more. Anywho sorry for the really long post. . Ahh yes and I almost forgot about medics with xbows, on higher difficulties they don't kill fleshies in one headshot like sharps do, but again speed reduction and perhaps a bit slower healing.

 

[Mr. Foxer]

I see nothing wrong with the medic, medic is only supposed to heal people, maybe kill a few zeds. If you do anything else, you should be banned for not doing your job.

Also, the medic class is very very underpowered, it's nice to have some kind of advantage.

 

[Vaecrius]

If you do anything else, you should be banned

NO SOUP FOR YOU

NEXT


Edit: I like some of Genocider's points, but I really like medic-speed so I'll have to disagree with that.

I do have a few other suggestions though:

- The medic should be allowed to count the syringe as a melee weapon for movement purposes. For any experienced player it's trivial to switch on the run, but sometimes (lag, gorefast running into view that could kill your teammate if you healed them instead of killing it) you just feel enough of an interference that you kinda want to stick with what you're running with for a bit longer... which adds a considerable incentive to getting a decent melee weapon just because you already have it out.
- Perhaps armour shouldn't make that huge a difference when it comes to pain flashes and screen shaking. This for me is one of the really big reasons why berserker is, if not weaker, then much harder to play. (But then if it's only the latter then it could be kept as it is now, as part of the appeal of playing zerker!)
- Maybe the medic's syringe can recover more slowly if they've just healed themselves? (Or maybe, for instance, you'd have to wait out the full reload animation if the syringe ever went down to zero, which is very difficult if you're just using 50 per shot as opposed to 100)

Beyond that, having solo'd a FP on hard at level 3, and now trying to learn how to reliably do that on normal, I think the zerker's pretty damn good as it is.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

- The medic should be allowed to count the syringe as a melee weapon for movement purposes. For any experienced player it's trivial to switch on the run, but sometimes (lag, gorefast running into view that could kill your teammate if you healed them instead of killing it) you just feel enough of an interference that you kinda want to stick with what you're running with for a bit longer... which adds a considerable incentive to getting a decent melee weapon just because you already have it out.

That's an idea I could get behind. Rather than a staple move-speed increase, it could be like the Berserker having a Melee-only speed increase, only it applies to the Syringe and MP7 (or whatever its called).

Edit:

I see nothing wrong with the medic, medic is only supposed to heal people, maybe kill a few zeds. If you do anything else, you should be banned for not doing your job.

*Sigh* We've been over this already. We aren't here to discuss how a Medic should be played, we're here to discuss whether or not the Medic class is more suited to Melee combat than the Melee Perk. If you're just going to sit here and spout duties like some lawful good douche bag who's head is too far up his own *** to even hear the conversation at hand, then take it to another topic.

 

[Zeron]

- The medic should be allowed to count the syringe as a melee weapon for movement purposes. For any experienced player it's trivial to switch on the run, but sometimes (lag, gorefast running into view that could kill your teammate if you healed them instead of killing it) you just feel enough of an interference that you kinda want to stick with what you're running with for a bit longer... which adds a considerable incentive to getting a decent melee weapon just because you already have it out.

Limiting the speed boost to medic-esque equipment wouldn't be a bad idea. But seriously, make the syringe count as a melee weapon for run speed at least. It's smaller than the 9mm, and hell, even the 9mm shouldn't incur a run speed loss.

I see nothing wrong with the medic, medic is only supposed to heal people, maybe kill a few zeds. If you do anything else, you should be banned for not doing your job.

I'm sick of people spouting crap about what every medic should do. "HEAL OR EAT MY BAN HAMMER" this isn't about what medics SHOULD do. This is about comparing the traits of the medic so that he is in fact superior at staying alive and killing playing in a berserker-esque style than an actual berserker playing this way.

Hell as far as i'm Concerned some sharpshooter could be using a flamethrower for all i care, as long as he dies and i get a good laugh out of it i'm okay.

The thing is Zerdic isn't something you can just laugh at the person and they will die for their own foolishness, it's actually a legit way to play that will earn you a lot of cash for you and your friends during waves since you have little to no armor+ammo cost.

Also, the medic class is very very underpowered, it's nice to have some kind of advantage.

Underpowered? What? You actually expect the medic to be able to kill stuff with its limited arsenal?(When not delving into other perk weapons) The developers expect you to be spending the majority of your time HEALING people not killing things.

But the stone cold truth is when a medic delves into other perk weaponry, it actually becomes OVERpowered.