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Berserker nerfed to uselessness

Nanostrike

Grizzled Veteran
May 19, 2009
2,025
250
In this patch, every class (Save for Firebug. No love for the Firebugs...) got a lot of fancy new weaponry and/or improvements. Except the Berserker. While every class was buffed, the Zerker got absolutely gimped.

First, the equipment nerfs. The Berserker got the Katana's attack rate slowed and the auto-attack removed. Thus, when you're surrounded, no more flurry of swings to break you out. Even spamclicking won't get you the attack speed you used to have.

And the Chainsaw, which already had pretty debatable use vs the Katana, was nerfed. It's constant-stream-of-pain primary fire's damage has been dropped to pathetic levels. Any enemies you decapitate now live long enough to smack you! Where the Chainsaw meant you could wade into a group of Gorefasts and come out on top where the Katana would get you hurt, it no longer does. In fact, doing so with the Chainsaw is suicide now. No redeeming features left in the Chainsaw whatsoever...

Then the new enemy and Fleshpound decap changes. The Husk is a Berserker's worst nightmare, as it can plink you from insane distances while you're busy hacking. Then, the Fleshpounds who used to be decap fodder for a Chainsaw or well-timed Katana swing with the "headbutt" attack, hardly every do the "headbutt" anymore. If you're a Zerker rushed by a Fleshpound, your weapons simply don't do enough damage to kill it and you're going to be clobbered if you don't get an insanely lucky decapitation...

Other perks far, far outdamage the Zerker now, FROM A SAFER RANGE, and can now easily deal with the bigger specimens that used to be the Berserker's forte... Why be right next to a Scrake right now, slashing away for 5 seconds when you can whip out an autoshotgun and blow him (And most everything near him!) away in the blink of an eye. Or pop his head with M-14 spam. Or blow him away with a pipebomb.

Most newbies from the free weekend get Berserker to levels 1 or 2 and give up on it because "The weapons suck and meleeing gets you killed". And they're completely right. Why melee, period, when the ranged options are so much better!? The bottom line, at least to me, is that these changes left the Berserker with no real competitive edge and, IMO, not much of a "Fun Factor" left. RIP, Berserker. We hardly knew you.
 
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Thus, when you're surrounded, no more flurry of swings to break you out. Even spamclicking won't get you the attack speed you used to have.
Oh no, without his godlike/W+M1 abilities, the Berserker can no longer make such incredibly stupid tactical decisions! Why, he might even have to consider teamwork now! How inconceivable!

The Scrake is a Berserker's worst nightmare, as it can plink you from insane distances while you're busy hacking.
What?

If you're a Zerker rushed by a Fleshpound, your weapons simply don't do enough damage to kill it and you're going to be clobbered if you don't get an insanely lucky decapitation...
Oh no, Berserkers can no longer solo Fleshpounds on a mere whim now! Oh, the agony!

Anyway, the Berserker is still overpowered as crap. I killed 200 specimens using the Katana in a long hard game of Farm without even trying, and I'm still only level 4. I was swimming in money and never had to worry about ammo or other such petty issues. The only specimen that brought a slight margin of concern from me was the Fleshpound, and why not? Everything weaker than him is completely trivialized by the Berserker's abilities. Clots, Gorefasts, and Stalkers are mere melee fodder, Bloats are far too pathetically slow to cause any worry (Plus, Bersekers even have a slight damage resistance to their acid bile), Husks can be dodged and stunned, and Scrakes can be stunned. That just leaves Crawlers and Sirens, the former a nuisance that can be dealt with decent melee timing (Or 9mm if you're lazy) and the latter can be cut to bits before she even has a chance to open her trap assuming you just bum rush her.

As for the Fleshpounds, I had to take a step back and work with my Sharpshooter, Demolition, Commando, Medic, and Support buddies to take them down. And hey, those were the memorable moments that felt like the game was working how it was intended to.
 
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Yet lolM14 can get surrounded and survive 100% of the time due to the LOL2shotscrake SKILL BLASTER!

Hopefully this game can get nominated for best balance design team!

What's even more cute is there's nothing that poses a threat to the sharpshooter class.

Also is it me or does a measly Crossbow bolt have 10x the destructive force of any explosive in the game?

@Slappy It's not about the skill needed to survive with a class, it's about the potential a class has in total. Sadly beserkers are no longer on the same playing field of damage as the Support and Sharpshooter classes. The only limitation support has is ammo total ammo capacity.
 
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i think the problem is that the role of the zerker has changed due to the addition of the bigger guns. it's now the job of the support and demo mainly to take out the big stuff. at least now almost every class has a chance against fps and scrakes. the lack of the ability to decap fps with the chainsaw has hurt the "power" of the zerker, but that doesn't mean can't be effective anymore.

it helps to be level5 and spawn with a saw. level6 a saw and armour. use the saw for a wave or two to conserve ammo, then sell it back when you change to something else. if you're on suicidal and money is scarce, saw comes in handy. if you're playing with lower level "support" perks, they won't ever get the big guns, but you can still have your saw/katana to take care of scrakes.

it all depends on the map, the difficulty, and the people you're playing with. yes the saw took a hit, but it only seems as bad as it does because the other perks got upgraded. overall, i think everything is a lot more balanced now so i'm ok with it. just have to learn how to adapt
 
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Personally, I don't see the problem with erring on the side of 'overpowered' for the berzerker. Other classes can come up with no-fail strategies for killing all enemy types, and THEY'RE about 40 feet away when they do it.The berzerker carries inherent risk with everything he does. He goes right into the danger to do his work, and whether or not his weapon reduces the risk I think there should be some reward in that.
 
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it helps to be level5 and spawn with a saw. level6 a saw and armour. use the saw for a wave or two to conserve ammo, then sell it back when you change to something else.

Note that in this example, you aren't even CONSIDERING staying as Berserker for an entire Suicidal game... That's seriously how ineffective the perk is right now...

Personally, I don't see the problem with erring on the side of 'overpowered' for the berzerker. Other classes can come up with no-fail strategies for killing all enemy types, and THEY'RE about 40 feet away when they do it.The berzerker carries inherent risk with everything he does. He goes right into the danger to do his work, and whether or not his weapon reduces the risk I think there should be some reward in that.

Exactly. Right now not only do the other classes have bigger, better, higher-damage weapons, but they can use them from safe distances, not having to worry about the danger of being in constant melee. The slower Katana and ineffective chainsaw make it all-but-impossible to take out more than scattered groups without being picked apart!
 
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I have to disagree with you on Fleshpounds, thats what the rest of your team is for sure ><

But yeah... Zerker is nigh useless. The only advantage is the Medic can now heal you without coming close. Maybe its just with so many newbs on servers nobody is actually doing there job and killing Crawlers, leaving you to deal with them yourself which is a pain. Which leads to a huge drop in killing speed and Husks just walk all over you. Getting hit by the fire when your on the frontline can kill you just by obscuring your vision.
 
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Oh no, without his godlike/W+M1 abilities, the Berserker can no longer make such incredibly stupid tactical decisions! Why, he might even have to consider teamwork now! How inconceivable!

Oh no, Berserkers can no longer solo Fleshpounds on a mere whim now! Oh, the agony!

Anyway, the Berserker is still overpowered as crap.

with the new weapons, now EVERYONE can solo Fleshpounds on a mere whim.
but that doesn
 
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beserkers seem to have got it in their head that they are meant to kill every type of specimen save for crawlers.

well guess what, crawlers are not the only thing beserkers have to worry about anymore. they now have to rely on their other team members more.

i see nothing wrong with them being gimped.

and why the hell would they give beserkers yet another weapon when they just gave you the katana which is easily the best melee weapon in the game.
 
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Because now almost every other perk CAN kill every type of specimen, INCLUDING crawlers while berserkers with their chainsaws leave headless CLOTS walking around and katanazerkers have to tap their mouse violently.

Also it's not like the berserker was hopelessly overpowered before, it still required a certain degree of coordination and not just 'left mouse+W to kill everything', you constantly have to do the 'don't get surrounded' dance, switch to your backup weapon for bloats and crawlers and if you missed the fp decap, you were still quite boned and relied on the team to help you.

Did you actually play the game lately, as a berserker? Did you actually ever play berserker?
 
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First, the equipment nerfs. The Berserker got the Katana's attack rate slowed and the auto-attack removed. Thus, when you're surrounded, no more flurry of swings to break you out. Even spamclicking won't get you the attack speed you used to have..

yeah man i agree with you. Now Berseker's player will have carpal tunnel syndrome. Plus with the new weaps and features Hard difficulty is like normal.....
and suicidal like hard.. This patch is intended for balancing suicidal...and killing the berseker.

Rip Berseker
 
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