Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been running Berserker primarily since HoT (along with some Chrono, Mes being my main). I’ve been following the Warrior forum too, reading the whaling anguish that this slice of the community can generate. While it seems the general consensus is that Warrior as a whole needs a rework, I thought I’d offer some tweaks to Berserker that I think would bring it up in line with the other elite specs, and help smooth over the main issue people are having with it. From what people are saying, the damage on Warrior/Berserker is fine, the sustain is not. So to get on with the point~

• Savage Instinct:
  Activating berserk mode breaks stuns. Burn (remove) 1 condition every second while in berserk mode. (Alternate: removes 2 conditions every 2s).
  • Why this change? Warriors are about sustaining themselves in combat at Berserker is no difference. This change would allow wars to “go berserk” while in berserk mode, particularly in melee where crippling effects and blind spam can really shut a war down. While it wont outright stop a condibomb, it’d fend off lesser troublesome condis for the 15s while the Berserker is going to want to be in the thick of things dealing out his pain.
    Furthermore it’d open up some diversity in utils and trait line dependencies. Also, it’d generate the possibility of more mindful use of berserker mode, instead of just spamming it immediately off cooldown.

• Dead or Alive:
  Taking fatal damage in berserk mode will heal you. 2 seconds blur (or block) when Dead of Alive activates.
  • Why this change? While the heal is a nice bit of sustain, under the effects of a lockdown or burst it can fly by without notice or even be inconsequential. Generating the 2s of evade would not only alert the Berseker to the traits proccing, it’d allow a window, albiet a brief one, for the war to take a breath and change gears. Whether that be to swap to a shield to further his blocks, open a gap with a GS, activate his healing sig to counter a condi bomb, or issue a counter burst when a stun runs out. Really though this effect is in line with much of what other elite specs have got, and while it should be effective, it’s fairly minimal for a defensive berserker line pick.

• Eternal Champion:
  Already buffed. Working great.

My thoughts are that the Berserk line need to bring their own strong presence in terms of defense/sustain that will either shore up weaknesses in a Warrior traiting for an offensive role, or further augment a defensive warrior traiting for a defensive roll. While there are plenty of areas that could be adjusted from core trait lines, weapons, to utils, I think these two trait buffs would be the first and more important place to start.

Thoughts?

I like the changes your talking about

but lets be real. Warriors need mobility.

The problem isn’t just in sustain in terms of HP/toughness/condi removal, it lies in a general ease of being countered due to lackluster utility. Even with your changes, Warriors will still be easily kited, blinded, blocked, immobilised, escaped by blinking to another platform etc. all too easily with no tools to fight back against them.

You can survive all you want but you can’t do DPS – or anything at all, save Shoutbow – if you can’t reach your target.

While i think these are great ideas what you have to consider is that you’re loading everything warrior needs to function into the Berserker line. What happens when the next elite specialization comes out? will it need to have exactly the same type of traits on the same tier of cleansing ire just to make Warrior function?

I think it’s CORE Warrior that needs a lookover – and not just traits because if you fix issues through traits they become MANDATORY for the class to function – but core mechanics need a looking over to be more like Torch 5 where they serve multiple purposes and stop being so entirely 1-dimensional.

KhainPride.3987:

I like the changes your talking about

but lets be real. Warriors need mobility.

So like, Torch Flames of War is a 900 range teleport?

KhainPride.3987:

I like the changes your talking about

but lets be real. Warriors need mobility.

Warriors need mobility.
Warriors need to not get screwed by blinds.
Warriors need to have damage mitigation or sustain.

I do very much like some of these ideas.

However, I think the core traits need an overhaul more than anything. Certain traits need to be moved to different trees to open up more build variety. Every time I think up a fun build, something about it won’t work because of conflicting trait alignments.

When I feel like taking the time to do it, I’ll probably make a thread with some suggestions on how to re-arrange and rework some of the traits. Just for example, Distracting Strikes should be moved to Arms and Dual Wielding to Strength. Armored Attack should be merged with Thick Skin and probably adjusted a tiny bit so as not to make it too overpowered, then put Vigorous Shouts where Armored Attack used to be in Defense which would leave a grandmaster spot open in Tactics. Since currently the three that are there are all pretty terrible unless you want to be a support build.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I do very much like some of these ideas.

However, I think the core traits need an overhaul more than anything. Certain traits need to be moved to different trees to open up more build variety. Every time I think up a fun build, something about it won’t work because of conflicting trait alignments.

When I feel like taking the time to do it, I’ll probably make a thread with some suggestions on how to re-arrange and rework some of the traits. Just for example, Distracting Strikes should be moved to Arms and Dual Wielding to Strength. Armored Attack should be merged with Thick Skin and probably adjusted a tiny bit so as not to make it too overpowered, then put Vigorous Shouts where Armored Attack used to be in Defense which would leave a grandmaster spot open in Tactics. Since currently the three that are there are all pretty terrible unless you want to be a support build.

Don’t forget removing such pointless ones as Unsuspecting Foe. And good luck on trying to rework the trait lines. I think I started that myself and realized “holy crap is this all messed up, I might as well just redesign the whole profession”

dead or alive -> heal for 3500-5000 (number depends on balance tests :^) when you enter and leave berserk mode, if you take lethal damage in berserk mode you leave it without dying. should help with the sustain problems.

the condi cleanse when you enter berserk mode should get increased to 3+. druid removes 13 condis in celestial avatar. compared to 1 in berserk mode is a bit of a joke.

tbh most traits are really bad.. the rage skills trait, last blaze for example… it burns enemies for 3s when you use a rage skill..

what it should do: give you 5 stacks of might for 10s, it’s a rage skill after all, so that the burn deals more damage, and it should reduce the cooldown of rage skills.

people who worked on berserker lost credibility when they tested berserker builds 1v1 in pvp arena as said per release/preview video of berserker(who did the 1v1? they spawn npc that is idle??)

lost credibility on warrior when they said it doesnt feel right when warrior convert conditions to boons.

you want to buff warrior anet? how about you just focus on nerfing classes

Ross Biddle.2367:

• Dead or Alive:
  Taking fatal damage in berserk mode will heal you. 2 seconds blur (or block) when Dead of Alive activates.
  • Why this change? While the heal is a nice bit of sustain, under the effects of a lockdown or burst it can fly by without notice or even be inconsequential. Generating the 2s of evade would not only alert the Berseker to the traits proccing, it’d allow a window, albiet a brief one, for the war to take a breath and change gears. Whether that be to swap to a shield to further his blocks, open a gap with a GS, activate his healing sig to counter a condi bomb, or issue a counter burst when a stun runs out. Really though this effect is in line with much of what other elite specs have got, and while it should be effective, it’s fairly minimal for a defensive berserker line pick.

Thoughts?

Great ideas in general. My only thought is that instead of giving us ‘blur’ upon activation of DoA, or something else that really doesn’t fit our class, why not give us 3 seconds of resistance and protection instead? Has counterplay, and you can boost the duration if you spec for boon duration.

Being completely invulnerable would be nice, but warrior already has a lot of passive stuff thats making the class so dumb to play.

I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with the berserker talents themselves so I wouldn’t want Anet putting the fixes for the warriors issues into that trait line.

All added more to the Berserker line would do is make Berserker the only line viable for warriors and elite specs weren’t supposed to be the have it or stop playing trait line.

What I require for my warrior isn’t a huge deal it’s simply more uptime on target applying the damage I already do whether that’s enhanced mobility, reduction in how chill etc effects us or conditions like blind it’s up to them but what they must not keep doing is adding more damage.

The whole sure the warrior is rubbish at hitting you but if you make a mistake and he ever lands a hit your instagibbed approach Anet is currently following by tacking on +% damage modifiers every time we look lacking in ‘something’ is very toxic to fun game play.