So I was reading Jester's post on how the berserk is supposedly OP, and I realized that (imho) the problem isn't the perk, but the environment in which it's trying to survive.
It seems that every class except the berserk has a natural enemy that is specifically designed to play on the class's weaknesses. Support has the Husk and highly maneuverable specimens (random crawler mobs still make me rage like nothing else), the Torch has high health specimens such as the scrake & fp, Demo has the stalkers and pretty much every specimen once it gets into melee range, for the Commandant there's anything that wont go down with a few direct HS, and so on and so forth. The closest the berserk has to either of these is the husk and siren, and he has pretty strong strategies for dealing with both of them.
Therefore I'd like to propose a new specimen that would be designed specifically to hit the berserk right in the balls. The berserk's greatest advantage is movement speed, yet there is no specimen that works effectively against it.
All I can think of right now is that this specimen X (let's call him Achilles for now) would be about as fast or faster than a perked berserk and have a strong but not fleshpound/scrake OP attack. What sets Achilles apart from the other specimens however, is that he has highly undeveloped eyes that are entirely movement dependent. He can only detect players that are moving relatively fast, and actively focuses his aggression on them. His Achilles' heel, if you will. When faced with one the berserk would be faced with a fatal ultimatum: keep moving and try to fight off Achilles, or stop and throw himself at the mercy of the horde. For this to work Achilles would naturally need to have a decent HP reserve and be unable to be stunlocked by the berserk.
Obviously the specimen needs to be fully fleshed out, but that's really all that's needed to fill his role. By adding him the berserk could be more effectively tethered and dependent on his team, while adding another level of depth to gameplay. What do you all think?
edit:
aesthetically Achilles might look like something akin to this
http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=43268
just a thought.
It seems that every class except the berserk has a natural enemy that is specifically designed to play on the class's weaknesses. Support has the Husk and highly maneuverable specimens (random crawler mobs still make me rage like nothing else), the Torch has high health specimens such as the scrake & fp, Demo has the stalkers and pretty much every specimen once it gets into melee range, for the Commandant there's anything that wont go down with a few direct HS, and so on and so forth. The closest the berserk has to either of these is the husk and siren, and he has pretty strong strategies for dealing with both of them.
Therefore I'd like to propose a new specimen that would be designed specifically to hit the berserk right in the balls. The berserk's greatest advantage is movement speed, yet there is no specimen that works effectively against it.
All I can think of right now is that this specimen X (let's call him Achilles for now) would be about as fast or faster than a perked berserk and have a strong but not fleshpound/scrake OP attack. What sets Achilles apart from the other specimens however, is that he has highly undeveloped eyes that are entirely movement dependent. He can only detect players that are moving relatively fast, and actively focuses his aggression on them. His Achilles' heel, if you will. When faced with one the berserk would be faced with a fatal ultimatum: keep moving and try to fight off Achilles, or stop and throw himself at the mercy of the horde. For this to work Achilles would naturally need to have a decent HP reserve and be unable to be stunlocked by the berserk.
Obviously the specimen needs to be fully fleshed out, but that's really all that's needed to fill his role. By adding him the berserk could be more effectively tethered and dependent on his team, while adding another level of depth to gameplay. What do you all think?
edit:
aesthetically Achilles might look like something akin to this
http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=43268
just a thought.
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