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Merc Report - Seeding Some Disruptive Tendencies

Between players wanting the Berserker to get nerfed further, the Frost Fang and now the Piranha Pistol, I actually wonder if Berserker will become the "pay to win" perk moving forward. If the anti-zerk crowd gets their way in a future update, then he'll need to have ranged weapons in order to maintain a sense of viability since we have seen a point where Zerks can get torn up to shreds even if they time their parries correctly.
zerk was fine now he feels like a husk of what he was its sad to see the game i loved become pay to win
 
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But should he really be nerfed further than right now? See my previous concerns regarding pay to win.
The piranhas costing real world money is not the same as the zerk being nerfed. I recognize your concerns about the paid to win part, but the current vanilla zerk remains a legit HoE option with any number of teammates.

I'm curious to know your thoughts on the other perks in HoE.
 
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The piranhas costing real world money is not the same as the zerk being nerfed. I recognize your concerns about the paid to win part, but the current vanilla zerk remains a legit HoE option with any number of teammates.
Perhaps not, though with the way people act as if the Summer beta 1 nerfs weren't harsh enough, I can't imagine vanilla berserker being viable if the anti-zerk crowd gets their way. I think the current state of Zerker is at the lowest point that he CAN be while still being in a playable state.
 
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Perhaps not, though with the way people act as if the Summer beta 1 nerfs weren't harsh enough, I can't imagine vanilla berserker being viable if the anti-zerk crowd gets their way. I think the current state of Zerker is at the lowest point that he CAN be while still being in a playable state.
There's no such thing as "anti-zerk crowd". Everyone who plays this game at high level knows previous zerk was busted, in fact I'm an advocate of the zerk nerf and I spend 50% of my playtime as zerk... the only "crowd" movement I'm seeing is the zerk fanboy crowd who keep acting as if the perk was unviable and needs to play with ranged weapons even though it is still the 2nd best kiting class right now (top being medic). I uploaded this gameplay shortly after the nerf proving zerk is still viable (this is in solo, but I'm using only a shovel, no hemoclobber, no parry, and still very optimizable gameplay). As the person above you asked, please give us our thoughts about other perks, like SWAT, firebug, have you tried those, how do they fare compared to zerk?

I acknowledge though that after the hemoclobber nerf, zerk may become one of the hardest perks of the game, but still probably top 3 (beaten by GS) and personally I'd like to see a 5% resistance buff - but the perk does not need that to be viable.
 
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But should he really be nerfed further than right now? See my previous concerns regarding pay to win.
IMO, his ranged game should be nerfed, yes. But not his skills or his passives anymore. I still believe both the Teslauncher and Vlad-9000 were huge mistakes for the perk. The Eviscerator is at least justified by the fact it's a T4 weapon. Same goes for the Frost Fang and the fact he "only" has two shells that are really effective at closer ranges only.
 
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Perhaps not, though with the way people act as if the Summer beta 1 nerfs weren't harsh enough, I can't imagine vanilla berserker being viable if the anti-zerk crowd gets their way. I think the current state of Zerker is at the lowest point that he CAN be while still being in a playable state.
I agree that there are 2-3 anti-zerkers who would petition to have the zerk removed if they felt like they could get away with it. I think it seemed like there was a camp of them because they were very vocal and the zerk really did need a nerf, so some fans of the zerk put the health of the game above their love of the zerk and joined the discussion.

I was bummed when the nerf was announced but it was for the best. I reached for the zerk when the completionist in me wanted to fulfill an HoE-related daily challenge (which I usually do solo). I'd use other perks from time to time but I usually chose the zerk because it was the easiest. I don't consider myself to be an expert at this game and I wouldn't consider myself to be proficient at parrying, yet one hand would be spamming LMB and the other would be shoveling a snack into my face and I'd win. Prior to the nerf I had very little fear of death with the zerk.

The zerk has to put itself in harm's way in order to be effective, so now that it is nerfed he is much less fun. There is that fine line where it is effective for a short period of time before having to retreat. That time in HoE is so short that, without the medic, it is a poor HoE choice (unless you enjoy kiting, which I don't, but that's on me). It's viable but requires patience that isn't needed with other perks so I agree with your concern.

I don't want to see the zerk go but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make it into KF3. What makes them a good tank also makes them prone to uncooperative tactics and what promotes cooperation further devalues the zerk to obscurity in high-difficulty teams. The pre-nerf zerk was that Wolverine character who doesn't need a team even though they're on one and the post-nerf zerk is akin to Meg's, uhm... super amazing ability to grow her fingernails...

meg.gif

Which is to say that you could choose zerk, but... why? The other options retain efficiency in a wider variety of scenarios. Instead of removing or salvaging the KF2 zerk, I would like to see a restructure of the skill trees in KF3 that promotes cooperative play while retaining the toe-to-toe gibfest that makes it fun.

Assuming that KF3 will end up like KF2 with better graphics, I threw together an example as an attached PNG. You can have the drug-induced, speedy, "it's just a flesh wound", rage killer (LLLLL) that is more consistent with the historical beserker or the ability to clog a lane while taking a hit for the team (RRRRR) as more of a support character. The former is a glass cannon that gets more dangerous as they're damaged and the latter is a low-maintenance iron wall who makes HVT killers' lives easier and comes to teammates' aid when called... at least that's the idea.

Each option provides a lot of unique and powerful characteristics—moreso that any other perk—so passive perks might be next to nothing (eg, stomping on zeds causes damage; you explode if you die; zeds are drawn to you; damage bonus to prone zeds; you can fling the blood off of your weapons at zeds, causing them to stumble on headshots, but does not work with eyeless, eye-covered, or enraged/rallied zeds) and the base zerk would be underwhelming.

I uploaded this gameplay shortly after the nerf proving zerk is still viable
I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate that you took the time to make and share the video. A lot of claims on here go unproven and come across as though the claimant is snooty. To actually see techniques in action, working, but also still challenging, is very helpful.

By any chance do you have any video showcasing a team-friendly zerk playing their role in HoE? I see a lot of videos on YT that are zerk guides or zerk solo captures, but not very many that include zerks in teams at higher difficulties.

I still believe both the Teslauncher and Vlad-9000 were huge mistakes for the perk.
It sounds like you've talked about this before. Would you mind sharing a link to your previous statements? Ranged weapons never bothered me with the zerk, but then again I choose the zerk when I'm in the mood for toe-to-toe violence, so my evaluation of the zerk's ranged arsenal is superficial. The vast majority of my zerk experience is solo, so ranged weapons are something that I consider more when the boss comes around. I think I've used the Tesla twice.

What are your thoughts on weapons like the javelin, spear, or throwing ax, which could be used in melee or thrown (and retrieved)? Short range, some penetration, small ammo pool, low cost... could fit in nicely.
 

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By any chance do you have any video showcasing a team-friendly zerk playing their role in HoE? I see a lot of videos on YT that are zerk guides or zerk solo captures, but not very many that include zerks in teams at higher difficulties.

I haven't recorded that, and I understand why nobody else did, because zerk in pubs is very different from what I uploaded here, in fact it is probably the most frustrating class in multiplayer.

The problem is that, for 95% people, zerk's role is to be the frontline and tank damage. But in reality zerk has never been that good at tanking (even pre-buff) and doing that is a poor use of some of his strengths (mobility & dodging) as well as your medic's. But way more problematic for me is that "tank" in pubs often means "the first one getting screwed for your teammates mistakes".

In theory, with a well organized team, zerk would be a nice asset to clear trash and de-rage FPs while your team deals with them at a distance, and a reactive medic would heal you while that happens.

In practice, though, what happens is that you'll be able to tank damage at first, but as randoms see you tank damage successfully they become more and more careless, shooting and raging everything, thinking you're here to de-rage zeds anyway, until suddenly the medic forgets to heal you for 3 seconds and you get shredded in front of your teammates.

So all in all, trying to play your role is very frustrating when others don't play their own, and ironically, you're playing a class which CAN perfectly handle everything alone, so you might as well do that (and I cannot emphasize how much I hate that, but that is the status of the game - for many classes in this game playing with your team is far less optimal than going solo and letting them die). Playing with your teammates means more firepower, but it also means uncontrollably raged FPs/scrakes, no kiting, people killing trash before you can use them for parry, etc. Not even talking about the reduced zed health when you let your team die which suddenly allows you to solo FPs like cake.

/rant
 
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