My attempts at humour notwithstanding, I was more referring to the fact that the zerker must close in, or be within melee to utilise his damage potential.
When compared to all the other classes that do not, due to the fact that they all have projectile and/or ranged weapons (with specific bonuses) and are supposed to fight at range.
All of the bonuses that the zerker recieves (increased speed and damage resistance) are due to fact that they don't have the luxury of fighting at range if they want to maximise their effectiveness and/or damage.
I understood your point.
But my point is that zerker isn't limited to melee weapons and that 99% of the posts people saying that zerker needs more power conveniently ignores that fact. Just like the classic 'What if a zerker with a katana is attacked by a group of crawlers? He is at a disadvantage compared the support or commando." That is a BS premise. Any zerker who has played the game more than 30 minutes, will simply whip out a pistol or rifle and shoot the crawlers. Only a moronic zerker wades into a crowd of crawlers while swinging the katana. It just doesn't happen. Add in that the zerker has the speed to actually run away from the crawlers, and the whole 'zerker attacked by crawlers' argument crumbles.
/Every/ zerker carries a gun to the fight and every zerker past wave 3carries multiple guns to the fight.
It just seems like a no-brainer to me and I can't see why one would think that the zerker is op?
I've listed my reasons and once again, it isn't /one single reason./ It is that zerker has no disadvantages.
If this thread is indeed a troll in it's own right, then I tip my hat to you good sir and 8/10
Oh yes, the 'troll' comment again. I think many people throw around the troll comment when they just don't want to think about a topic or they can't defend their opinion. BTW, there isn't any need to defend an opinion. If someone thinks something they can simply just say that. But throwing out the 'troll' accusation is just mentally lazy. That last sentence wasn't only directed at you, but others who use the 'T' word as if they get paid per use.
Here are the list of the weaknesses* of the Berserker. Most of these have been said by others but a few I added myself.
Outstanding! This is the exact type of reply I was hoping to get.
[Added for edit] I believe the disconnect here is that you, along with others are arguing theoretical points while I am arguing realistic points. Sure,
theoretically a zerker using a katana will have more trouble fighting a group of crawlers than a support using the aa12. But
realistically, a zerker wouldn't use the katana for that. He would pull out an m79, LAR, or the pistol and kill the crawlers.
1) Hazardous Distance: since the zerker has to be in melee range to use his perk's weapons, he has to move into the enemies striking range. Thus the zerker has the greatest chance to be hit by enemies while using his perks weapons.
2) The weakest ranged attacks: if the zerker does get a ranged weapon he has the weakest ranged attack out of all perks.
3) Weak outside of the perk: The zerker has no bonuses that add to the dps of weapons picked outside of his perk.
4) The most expensive ranged weapons: If the zerker buys his own ranged weapon he will have to shell out more money for the weapon and ammo.
5) Serial Killer: The zerker is limited to killing one enemy at a time with its own perk weapons.
6) Little Forgiveness: If you hit a lag spike, or have a temporary distraction, there is a good chance you could end up brown bread quickly since (1).
7) Weak damage: According to KF wiki**: the commando, sharpshooter and support specialist all out dps a berseker with the katana, even when not all of the other perks bonuses are taken into account. The firebug deals less damage to a single target, but can easily damage multiple targets at once. The same goes for the demoman, but the demoman also has far greater burst dps than the berserker. (The chainsaw deals more comparable damage btw, but I don't see anyone saying that it is OP)
8) Not a great money maker: Since any other perk can easily kill from a range greater than the berseker (plus 5 and 7), they will most likely take down enemies before the zerker has the chance to chop them up. This leaves the zerker with less money than the other perks.
9) Friendly Fire Fodder: Since the berserker will be in the front of a group, he has the greatest chance to be hit by friendly fire if it is enabled.
1) Yes and no. To use his perked weapons he does have to get close. But he has significant range and direct damage resistances along with not being able to be held. 90% of the games I have seen ended have been ended due to being overrun. So while being in the middle of the action is a disadvantage to all perks, the zerker is best to deal with it. So while I agree with you that the zerker has to get "up close and personal" to do the most damage, I see the overwhelmingly number of games ending up with the specimens getting up close.
2) Zerker does the exact same damage with the m79 as a medic/commando/sharpie/support/flamer does. Zerker does the same damage with a LAR as the medic/commando/support/demo/flamer does. The zerker does the exact same damage with an unperked weapon as every other perk with the same unperked weapon. The /big/ advantage is that the base damage of the weapons is generally enough.
3) Other than the sharpie /with a headshot/ no other perk has any bonuses to unperked weapons.
4) Along with every other perk buying an unperked weapon. Medic with xbow. Commando with aa12. Zerker with LAR. Support with m79.
5) But he isn't limited to his own perked weapons. Other unperked weapons are more than powerful enough.
6) That is every perk. Now you can say that since the zerker is up front that he would get hit hardest immediately, and I would agree with you. However, zerker is the easiest to recover from such a spike and he can always get out of trouble. 3 gorefasts rush any other perk than medic with armor or zerker and that lag spike is death.
7) Weak damage compared to what? Sure, if you want to compare the amount of damage a specific perk can do in 20 seconds to a zerker. However, once other factors such as a longer lifetime to actually do damage is considered, then the zerker out-damages the other perks.
8) Nah. Just about every zerker I have ever played with is always giving money away. Now they don't have the earning potential as a support or sharpie, however, since their perked weapons are dirt cheap and don't cost any money to use, they accumulate cash wave after wave.
9) But there isn't any friendly fire. There should be. There shouldn't be any way that I should be able save some zerker, or any other perk, by emptying an AA12 at the player.
* I'm not actually suggesting the berserker is the weakest perk here. Nor am I suggesting the weaknesses aren't offset by some of the berserker's strengths.
I understand. While I disagreed with most of your point, great post.
The average Berserker will sh*t themselves when they hear a Fleshpound coming, get annoyed at a bloat, husk or siren.
Maybe the first few times they see a FP. Once they get to "average" competency, zerkers know they should and are supposed to charge fleshpounds and scrakes.
I meant to say beta patch 2, which is when they fixed the back stab. Regardless, I was mostly using LAR, with a few axe swings against the FP pair so they wouldn't gone much faster. It still would have been 7 minutes of kiting b/c the FP pair is a giant roadblock.
A zerker using something other than an axe or katana? They can do that?
