Guild Wars 2

Why do people buy anything but berserker gear?

Some cleric geared ele giving you trouble? Use berserker gear.

Some bunker guard out there just wont die? Use berserker.

Some thief killing you in seconds? Use berserker and get the jump on him first!

..and if you get killed from AOE, just come to the forums and cry til they nerf AOE.

GW2’s shine is really starting to rub off.

Also every dungeon can be completed by teams of only berserker + on a lot of weapons most of you’re dps come from auto attack.

Depends on the build obviously. I’m not going to run a Hammer Warrior in WvW wearing Beserker Gear. And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

Levitas.1953:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

I do, have fun in your downed state.

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

When everything one shots you you’re best defense is playing smart, not toughness and vitality stats.

Xia.3485:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

When everything one shots you you’re best defense is playing smart, not toughness and vitality stats.

Never said it was bud.

PearlGore.7419:

Levitas.1953:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

I do, have fun in your downed state.

You just need more practice.

Xia.3485:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

When everything one shots you you’re best defense is playing smart, not toughness and vitality stats.

Dang Xia, where you been? Agreed 100%.

The problem with berserker is stat synergy that is not available through any other stats. I mean Power x Crit % x Crit damage x % damage increases provides for some insane damage scaling and it should not be there unless the defensive stats scale equally. There needs to be defensive stat multipliers as well. Healing power should be a viable stat, but since ArenaNet is so hellbent on not having healers it’s pretty much a wasted stat since 9/10 it scales absolutely horribly.

Bottom line with ArenaNet is they have absolutely no idea how to balance anything. The sad state of class/stat balance shows this and every patch just reinforces this.

clay.7849:

PearlGore.7419:

Levitas.1953:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

I do, have fun in your downed state.

You just need more practice.

I do just fine with 3 Valk pieces at 38, but okay I’ll practice more.

clay.7849:

Dang Xia, where you been? Agreed 100%.

Bioshock infinite, and soon borderlands 2.. on the steam page right now looking for the best deal

Still getting my dailys done, but GW2 is on the back burner for a little while. (Or at least until the April patch).

Xia.3485:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

When everything one shots you you’re best defense is playing smart, not toughness and vitality stats.

unless you’re a warrior dodge is not infinite and sometimes you can’t remove aggro, so vitality and toughness are good friends in a high level dungeon. Plus toughness actually enables you to hold aggro and make it easier on everyone else. Really I have seen very few very good berserker warriors in CoE or Arah. Most of them run in, smack things, go down.

PearlGore.7419:

clay.7849:

PearlGore.7419:

Levitas.1953:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

I do, have fun in your downed state.

You just need more practice.

I do just fine with 3 Valk pieces at 38, but okay I’ll practice more.

And I do just fine with my zerker gear. I was just saying practice more because you clearly can’t do the same things others can in zerker gear, or you wouldn’t have said have fun in your downed state.

clay.7849:

PearlGore.7419:

clay.7849:

PearlGore.7419:

Levitas.1953:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

I do, have fun in your downed state.

You just need more practice.

I do just fine with 3 Valk pieces at 38, but okay I’ll practice more.

And I do just fine with my zerker gear. I was just saying practice more because you clearly can’t do the same things others can in zerker gear, or you wouldn’t have said have fun in your downed state.

Practice more Because I prefer different stats? It’s clear you Don’t run these dungeons. You would be kicked.

PearlGore.7419:

clay.7849:

PearlGore.7419:

clay.7849:

PearlGore.7419:

Levitas.1953:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

I do, have fun in your downed state.

You just need more practice.

I do just fine with 3 Valk pieces at 38, but okay I’ll practice more.

And I do just fine with my zerker gear. I was just saying practice more because you clearly can’t do the same things others can in zerker gear, or you wouldn’t have said have fun in your downed state.

Practice more Because I prefer different stats? It’s clear you Don’t run these dungeons. You would be kicked.

No, because you think that zerker gear = not being able to complete dungeons. If you can’t complete dungeons in zerker gear you need to practice more, that’s all.

My god, I thought we were talking about zerkger gear, not what you wear.

Xia.3485:

clay.7849:

Dang Xia, where you been? Agreed 100%.

Bioshock infinite, and soon borderlands 2.. on the steam page right now looking for the best deal

Still getting my dailys done, but GW2 is on the back burner for a little while. (Or at least until the April patch).

Ya, I have been playing Skyrim again lately. Good to see you back in the forums though.

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

Actually in Fractals 60+ everything downs you regardless of how much toughness and vit you have, something that actually makes Berseker gear more useful.

It would be nice if we did not have liars in here, would help the discussion on gear.

PearlGore.7419:

Practice more Because I prefer different stats? It’s clear you Don’t run these dungeons. You would be kicked.

Find a playstyle that works for you. But despite that, the most effective for most classes right now is pure berserker gear and DPS spec. Once I learned the content, I switched both my elementalist and thief to pure zerker.

Not sure if this applies to guardians though.

PearlGore.7419:

It would be nice if we did not have liars in here, would help the discussion on gear.

Don’t call those that disagree with you liars.. it makes you look.. well.. not very mature.

PearlGore.7419:

It would be nice if we did not have liars in here, would help the discussion on gear.

It would also be nice if people who don’t know what they were talking about didn’t come in here and claim things like good luck in FoTM and Arah with zerker gear.

The vest “defence” in this games are blocks/dodges/invulns, relying on toughness/vit is a sure way to get downed. This makes zerker gear superior for (just about) everything.

It IS inappropriate to treat non-Berserker’s gear players as if they were on training wheels, waiting for the final level of “pro-ness” in which they can finally play the game “as intended”, with full Berserker’s gear, getting rid of all of those “needless” stats such as condition damage, healing power, toughness, vitality, etc.

I do not condone bashing those who use Berserker’s gear, because that would be hypocritical-players should use the gear they want, prefer, and works for them, pure and simple. All stats are viable for certain players, playstyles, and Profession/build combinations. DPS is good, but contrary to popular opinion (and I am sure developer’s must agree 100% on this) GW2 is not about “who DPS the most, wins”. That’s a player conclusion that has become popular, not something that was ever intended. So yes, make no apologies about your “zerk” gear, but avoid feeling superior to others just because “you know how to dodge”-PLENTY of people are good players, know how to dodge, and still wouldn’t use Berserker’s gear-it’s a PERSONAL choice, not a proof of “skill”, “zerk” or otherwise.

I mean no offense, and do respect anyone’s wishes to use Berserker’s-why shouldn’t you? But no, it doesn’t make you the better player-it’s just what you like best and works for you.

Star Ace.5207:

All stats are viable for certain players, playstyles, and Profession/build combinations. DPS is good, but contrary to popular opinion (and I am sure developer’s must agree 100% on this) GW2 is not about “who DPS the most, wins”. That’s a player conclusion that has become popular, not something that was ever intended.

Unfortunately, the shorter the fight is the less chance there is of someone getting downed (or dead) by mistake. This favors berserker for most professions. Add in the condition cap of 25 and the rather bad healing power scaling and you get what you get. Its even more true in high level fractals where defensive stats become less and less relevant.

No one is saying you have to play zerker. What we are saying is the optimal build right now is zerker by design; even though the dev team obviously intended otherwise.

Xia.3485:

Star Ace.5207:

All stats are viable for certain players, playstyles, and Profession/build combinations. DPS is good, but contrary to popular opinion (and I am sure developer’s must agree 100% on this) GW2 is not about “who DPS the most, wins”. That’s a player conclusion that has become popular, not something that was ever intended.

Unfortunately, the shorter the fight is the less chance there is of someone getting downed (or dead) by mistake. This favors berserker for most professions. Add in the condition cap of 25 and the rather bad healing power scaling and you get what you get. Its even more true in high level fractals where defensive stats become less and less relevant.

No one is saying you have to play zerker. What we are saying is the optimal build right now is zerker by design; even though the dev team obviously intended otherwise.

It is optimal to you, but not to many players. I don’t mind if you use it, as long as you don’t think any less of anyone else who doesn’t. And as you said, since the developer’s didn’t intend for that to be the case (DPS above all) I’ll stick to their plan of all stats being viable, even if they aren’t for you (this is OK, no offense intended.)

Star Ace.5207:

It is optimal to you, but not to many players. I don’t mind if you use it, as long as you don’t think any less of anyone else who doesn’t. And as you said, since the developer’s didn’t intend for that to be the case (DPS above all) I’ll stick to their plan of all stats being viable, even if they aren’t for you (this is OK, no offense intended.)

Personally I don’t care what people run in my groups, as long as they aren’t downed half the time. I’m also not saying that zerker is more fun or anything subjective of that sort.

What I am saying is that, due to balancing and the current game mechanics, zerker is mathematically the best stats to wear.. and dps specs are the best stats to use. I would very much wish support specs and gearsets were more potent than they are now. I also wish the condition builds wouldn’t suffer so badly due to the 25 stack limit.

I’m not saying the game should adopt the holy trinity, but I don’t see why someone shouldn’t be able to go full healer or tank if he chose too. Everything is skewed towards DPS unfortunately.

As such I’m using zerker gear and DPS specs on my mains. In well organized groups using similar gear and specs we down content very quickly. Its efficient. Its not more fun though. I do get demolished in WvW though, so there’s hope

Tis true, power and crit scale better and have more use than the other stats. It’s the way the game is designed, player skill over stats, no one is meant to face tank or stay in melee. Game is built on dodges, and temp cc to give short invulnerability. If they changed Toughness, and Vitality to give a boost to vigor (or whatever your dodge energy is called), it would be of more use. As it stands there is no reason not to run zerker.

Because the game’s idea of challenge is to kill you in one hit, and thus the grand majority of actually threatening enemies renders defensive stats completely worthless. Healing power scales poorly and but power/precision/crit damage scale off each other. Do the math.

Also, thanks to the 25 stack condition cap, power builds have an inherent advantage, not to mention condition builds suck against objects.

Then again, one could ask why people even bother with some classes, and that would be because this is a game.

As long as ANet insist on balancing with SPVP as the focus, and have a apparent vendetta against SPVP bunkers, non-DPS builds will suffer in the other modes.

This then in compounded by access to various ways to fully invulnerable for variable durations, starting with dodge and moving on to block, aegis, blind and perhaps others i forget about.

i hope i never get any class in zerker gear in fotm 30+. zerker sucks…

On my warrior Ive gone with berserker due to the fact ive got to contend with kill before I get killed playstyle it seems to have. Tried tanky and it just didn’t work out for me. On my Engi i’ll be going with traveller or that other condition/power that has the precision on it too, when I get that far.

On my Ele though i’ll go with whatever empowers the heals for group play and berserker when im going solo.

I find it funny that the original post argues the point by saying Berserker gear is best against a variety of foes in WvW / sPvP, when Berserker gear is good on only a handful of characters and specs in those formats. It’s generally a rather poor gear set against other players.

In PvE it is of course the strongest possible set for blowing up easy content – whether it is easy because it is inherently roll-your-face-really-fast easy, or because you’re so practiced at it that you can dodge everything flawlessly. It’s the highest possible damage spec, and you don’t need defensive specs against easy content.

Condition damage is weak in PvE, though not so much due to the bleed cap; it’s weak because trash mobs die in 3-5 seconds to physical damage, before conditions have time to work, while against champion or legendary mobs the natural half condition duration on most of them utterly neuters the effectiveness of conditions. They’re only good for, like, soloing veteran mobs in the open world.

Killing structures does not matter really; a full circlezerker isn’t going to do any more damage than a PVT tank, as crit does not affect your damage either.

PearlGore.7419:

Depends on the build obviously. I’m not going to run a Hammer Warrior in WvW wearing Beserker Gear. And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

This actually is the way to success but you just have not realized/experienced it yet.

PearlGore.7419:

clay.7849:

PearlGore.7419:

Levitas.1953:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

I do, have fun in your downed state.

You just need more practice.

I do just fine with 3 Valk pieces at 38, but okay I’ll practice more.

I do Fractal 38 regularly in full Berserker Gear, and I’ve done every path of Arah in Berserker Gear as well. Yeah, things hurt, and in the formers case, 1 shots can be common. But with reaction time, dodging, and knowledge of visibility ques on said attacks, I rarely die.

To each their own; not impossible but speaking on experience, not for everyone either. I personally like letting my dodges/timings dictate my downed state, then stacking defensive stats.

PearlGore.7419:

Levitas.1953:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

if you say so.

I do, have fun in your downed state.

first rule, dont say a word if you dont know what you are speaking about.
i play a mesmer and with mesmer, you have a lot of ways to avoid damage that you can go full berserker smoothly, even in your terrible arah and fractal runs. accept that there are players that run dungeons in berserker gear without dying more often than you, one day you may be one of them.
good luck with your lvl 38 fractal, really impressive.

Ezeriel.9574:

Why do people buy anything but berserker gear?

Some cleric geared ele giving you trouble? Use berserker gear.

Some bunker guard out there just wont die? Use berserker.

Some thief killing you in seconds? Use berserker and get the jump on him first!

..and if you get killed from AOE, just come to the forums and cry til they nerf AOE.

GW2’s shine is really starting to rub off.

Curious as to the point of the thread. If you are saying that the combination of “best practice” gear combined with “movement skill” creates the opportunity for easier gameplay, then congratulations, you’ve “beaten the game”.

You can move on, if you find the game isn’t challenging enough for you.

Or you can post thoughtful, detailed suggestions in the suggestion forum with an eye to addresssing the issue(s) you may feel are lacking or need adjustment.

This is no different than other MMOs.

Good luck whatever you do.

I don’t know what your all worried about, those who love zerker will be mad soon, and those who hate it will rejoice,

I personally don’t use it, but I have no issues with those who do, its almost like SF from GW1, we all seen it, some hated it some loved it, but ultimately, its going to get hit with the Anet Nerf Bat, and they will nerf it that bad that no one will use it.

Ok I Did It.2854:

I don’t know what your all worried about, those who love zerker will be mad soon, and those who hate it will rejoice,

I personally don’t use it, but I have no issues with those who do, its almost like SF from GW1, we all seen it, some hated it some loved it, but ultimately, its going to get hit with the Anet Nerf Bat, and they will nerf it that bad that no one will use it.

How are they going to do that? They would have to change the entire game to nerf zerker gear to the point where it would be more beneficial to use other gear.

Ok I Did It.2854:

I don’t know what your all worried about, those who love zerker will be mad soon, and those who hate it will rejoice,

I personally don’t use it, but I have no issues with those who do, its almost like SF from GW1, we all seen it, some hated it some loved it, but ultimately, its going to get hit with the Anet Nerf Bat, and they will nerf it that bad that no one will use it.

Is Anet against buffing weaker stuff up to around the same lvl of the stronger stuff? All Ive seen them do so far is nerf.

clay.7849:

Ok I Did It.2854:

I don’t know what your all worried about, those who love zerker will be mad soon, and those who hate it will rejoice,

I personally don’t use it, but I have no issues with those who do, its almost like SF from GW1, we all seen it, some hated it some loved it, but ultimately, its going to get hit with the Anet Nerf Bat, and they will nerf it that bad that no one will use it.

How are they going to do that? They would have to change the entire game to nerf zerker gear to the point where it would be more beneficial to use other gear.

all they would have to do is change one stat and the damage it deals would be nerfed to MF gear level. Meaning that most gear types would deal similar damage. Plus they’re changing how condition damage works, so condition gear sets should start being worth something.
I don’t think that berserker gear will be nerfed to oblivion, but a future small nerf I imagine might be a possibility.

@daver, if buffing the weaker stuff would make the problem of, LFG zerkers only ping GEAR, running CoF Path 1, 25times back to back, go away, then they would probably do it, but it wont, so buffing weaker stuff wont work,

@clay, if you played GW1 from the start ud see that they could easily do it, they wouldn’t have to change there entire game, all they need to do is change 1 stat on the armor and bam no more super stack damage, infact they don’t even need to do that, all they have to do is put a limit on the amount of crit damage you can do, if they capped it at 30% its done.

I’m sorry, I didn’t think about them removing a stat that makes it what it is.

I guess that is a possibility, but I really don’t see them kitten off everyone who worked to get their gear set up perfectly only to make it obsolete by changing the stats on it.

Plus, I still don’t think it would change the fact that people would just find the next best combination of gear and trinkets for max damage.

The underlying problem wouldn’t be nerfed without significant changes elsewhere, IMO.

Ok I Did It.2854:

@daver, if buffing the weaker stuff would make the problem of, LFG ZERKERS ONLY ping GEAR, running CoF Path 1, 25times back to back, go away, then they would probably do it, but it wont, so buffing weaker stuff wont work.

So nerfing things into the ground is the way to go? ok that’s good….

…That was a poor excuse for a joke I know. Think my sarcastic side needs a nerf bat and Im being serious, lands me in trouble all the time.

I suppose if all you do is run CoF 1 over and over… otherwise zerker gear is kinda meh…

Also depends on the class… condition based builds certainly don’t want zerker gear. My mesmer will wreck you with condition dmg if you are just wearing zerker gear with no vit.

Do you see any full zerker gear people in tpvp? Didn’t think so.

Hicci.8761:

Do you see any full zerker gear people in tpvp? Didn’t think so.

Too bad the tPvP players don’t buy gear off the trading post to help balance the gear prefix values.

I hope they don’t nerf zerk armor or the power and crit stats. They just need to make the other stats more engaging. Give those stats meaningful impact upon builds and traits. Nerfs seldom “fix” anything.

In organized groups, 5 man full zerker (maybe one zerker/knight guardian) is the way to go. You won’t die when everyone plays his or her part well.
Just google some speedrun-videos of Arah EXP.

On the other hand, if your pubbing, you often can’t rely on your team. Bring some defensive armor and when things dont work out, switch gear.

I prefer mixed gear myself, only toon with a full set of a specific prefix is my necro in rabid gear.

Most others are either in a mix of zerk/valk/knight/pvt depending on class. I set my mind on stat numbers I want aswell as rune set bonuses I want, then I make my set. With high dodge classes, like warrior and engi I enjoy the extra toughness, since it lets me get aggro more easily so my group can worry less. Guardian already has great survivability and mitigation, so I just decided on getting enough valk gear to get him to 16k hp, rest is zerk.

It also depends alot on playstyles. This game is not a min-max game like WoW or other similar MMOs, there are no cookie cutter specs in the same way, options are wider, same with armors.

But congrats to the zerkers that find themselves above others because they can beat CoF x seconds shorter than a mixed group. You truely are the gods amongst us lesser mortals.

Mirta.5029:

Xia.3485:

PearlGore.7419:

And GL with high lvl Fractals or Arah EXP in beserker Gear lol.

When everything one shots you you’re best defense is playing smart, not toughness and vitality stats.

unless you’re a warrior dodge is not infinite and sometimes you can’t remove aggro, so vitality and toughness are good friends in a high level dungeon. Plus toughness actually enables you to hold aggro and make it easier on everyone else. Really I have seen very few very good berserker warriors in CoE or Arah. Most of them run in, smack things, go down.

Yep.

Over time I’ve learned that most explorable bosses can be ‘two-personed’. If I was a bit better, soloed.

I’ve learned this because those berserker types run in, do some massive damage, and then faceplant.

Then me and another player trade the boss and adds back and forth as we take it down, thanks to having toughness, vitality, and assorted other stats.
- Sadly these fights are often -not- that much longer than fights with a team of all five still up, leading me to think that really, in a lot of ways I spend a lot of time ‘carrying’ these folks.

Quite often as wel two-person such a fight, the faceplanted berserker types are in chat talking about how “this never happens, usually I pwn teh bozz 1337-stylz.”
- And then we get to the next boss, and it happens again.

Then I start hearing about how “man I’m lagging today” and other excuses, while I manage to stay alive and kill the boss even while getting some of those nasty ‘running man’ lag moments…

Lastly: I have yet to encounter anything in this game that can one-shot any of my 8 characters. Even the big dragon fights. I’ve seen a few things that can two shot me, but most can’t even do that.

I’d been thinking they must have nerfed damage in this game after launch – but then I just realized I wasn’t standing in the fire so often, and now knew the value of mixing my stats between offense and defense. Even at launch they couldn’t one-shot me, but I used to go down a lot after ‘shot 3’, whereas I’m now often the ‘last one standing’ while also the primary one holding aggro (and the primary one reviving others in mid fight, even while something is wacking on my back)…

This has nothing to do with me being ‘good’ or ‘epic’ or ‘1337’ or something. Far from it, I’m hardly that good at this game. Its just that I put more thought into my gear and build than [Achmed voice] “I pwnz U!”