Berserker in WvW - Good and Bad

Berserker in WvW - Good and Bad

in Warrior

Posted by: Choppy.4183

Choppy.4183

Last night, I came across a few Berserkers while roaming around that did very well for themselves. It was the first time I felt they weren’t being carried and, I daresay, they were actually pretty darned strong.

I’m wondering what other peoples’ experiences have been while running Berserker in wvw. From the builds that have failed miserably and general weaknesses to where they’ve done really well and actually represented a net improvement for the warrior class. Ideally, people who’ve tried builds (good and bad) would also post them.

Here’s what I’ve seen work so far:

  1. Glass cannon Gun Flame builds in larger scale fights. It seems crazy strong if used properly, especially if someone dips into Arms to get (basically) constant unblockablility from Signet Mastery
  2. Gs/R in small scale roaming and havoc. I came across this yesterday and was genuinely impressed. I was eating 15k Arc Dividers which is insane considering how little time it takes to generate 10 adren to spam those things out. The build wasn’t as vulnerable as I’d have thought, with the person running it handling focus really well. I didn’t see him get a Gun Flame off, but obviously it would also hit like a truck and provides the ranged utility normally lacking in gs builds. Basically, seemed like a very strong version of the old Kill Shot gs/r, but stronger and not so risky.
  3. M+Sh/Gs using Defender Runes (as per Cygnus’ build) but with more condi by way of Viper gear. Worked very well, especially once Skullgrinder landed, but was a bit more manageable than the gs/r build in that I didn’t have to fear losing 15k health on a single hit. Still, it was very dangerous and probably had much better durability than the gs/r build.
  4. M+Sh/Gs using Cygnus’ Defender Runes on Berserker gear. I haven’t actually seen this in action yet, but I would expect it to have both the durability of the mace build above and possibly the 15k Arcing Slices of the gs/r build.

I’ve seen a few Gun Flame builds that just melted against my normal zerk warrior, mostly because I could see right through the gimmick they were built around, and I’ve come across some ok-ish gs/a+sh builds that, tbh, weren’t a net improvement over the normal warrior gs/a+sh build (possibly a little less, but it’s tough to account for relative skill).

Anyone else found especially good success (i.e. much better than normal warrior) in wvw, or horribad disasters, with the Berserker builds you’ve tried? If so, in what context? Zerg, havoc, roaming, something else?

I’m Biff Rangoon, and I approved this message.
Ehmry Bay | Omg Brb Icecream Truck (ICEE)

(edited by Choppy.4183)

Berserker in WvW - Good and Bad

in Warrior

Posted by: Thuggernaut.1250

Thuggernaut.1250

I’ve had decent success with a variation of the Gunflame gimmick build both in roaming and zerging. Like you mentioned, the Arms traitline really helps get those unblockable Gunflames out, with 100% crit from Burst Precision. Losing Strength hurts, but I think having a reliable, 100% Gunflame crit with Signet of Might procs slightly edges out Berserker’s Power. Of course you have to run Discipline both for Crack Shot and (of course) Fast Hands. Burst Precision is nice Gunflame booster as well.

Of course the build is essentially pure glass, but if you have comrades taking the heat, well…

Berserker in WvW - Good and Bad

in Warrior

Posted by: Ghotistyx.6942

Ghotistyx.6942

I’ve actually been seeing some success with laying down Scorched Earth in zerg fights and supporting through Shouts and Warhorn. SE can hit so many people and can act as a non-cc zerg softener while you traverse the midline, not to mention the wide fire field area for your allies. I run T2, but it’s usually not organized in most regards so these niche builds have a greater effect than perhaps other organized guilds might get. We stay competitive with a strict BYOBuild policy.

Fishsticks

Berserker in WvW - Good and Bad

in Warrior

Posted by: Rekt.5360

Rekt.5360

I find zerker greataxe great. Headbutt->outrage->decapitate->swap->hydro proc+100b can all land in that stun duration. The quickness uptime you get if you take heightened focus is insane too. Heck I run zerk/def/disc and I still find I do good dmg. If I swap to str/zerk/disc and go full glass cannon the dmg is just lol and it kittens non-condi specs quite bad. The cleave dmg you get from decapitate and arc divider and the rate at which you can dish it out is MUCH superior to that of normal greataxe, it sometimes allows you to end outnumbered fights much faster. On top of that arc divider has quite the nasty range, in melee 1v1s where you both have a small tendency to circle around eachother you can often pull random arc dividers out of you kitten and hit people because they weren’t expecting the attack to hit from that range, I mean the couple of reapers I’ve hit for 10k+ arc dividers must’ve been quite mad (and that’s running no strength line eh). One thing zerker greataxe is much worse than regular greataxe is cleaving downed though. On normal greataxe you can efficiently cleave bodies for huge amounts of might and kill them fast enough without stomping, you can’t really do that in zerker greataxe, you do get pulsing stab though and on demand quickness on zerker mode pop so you can sometimes secure stomps before the guy manages to get rezzed. It has its ups and downs certainly but I for one feel that in warr v warr zerker has an inherent advantage because of that pulsing stab. Try landing a Bull’s->100b/shield bash->eviscerate on a competent zerker warr, it’s freaking impossible. Most of the fights I get are 1v1s when roaming though, I don’t zerg :S

Vanov {Warrior} ~ Still waiting for “Guide on Making Proper ||#1 Warr NA|| Sig”

(edited by Rekt.5360)

Berserker in WvW - Good and Bad

in Warrior

Posted by: Choppy.4183

Choppy.4183

On top of that arc divider has quite the nasty range….

Omg… I never noticed that before. Is it seriously a 450 radius?!

I’m Biff Rangoon, and I approved this message.
Ehmry Bay | Omg Brb Icecream Truck (ICEE)

Berserker in WvW - Good and Bad

in Warrior

Posted by: Elegie.3620

Elegie.3620

On top of that arc divider has quite the nasty range….

Omg… I never noticed that before. Is it seriously a 450 radius?!

Yes, it’s pretty awesome. It allows more flexibility in your positioning, helping quite a bit against adds, kiting classes and fleeing opponents. And on top of that, the damage is pretty attractive. I’ve had some fun with it in PvP before, running GS/Mace/Shield, with berserker gear and Strength / Discipline / Berserker.

Berserker in WvW - Good and Bad

in Warrior

Posted by: Choppy.4183

Choppy.4183

Yes, it’s pretty awesome. It allows more flexibility in your positioning, helping quite a bit against adds, kiting classes and fleeing opponents. And on top of that, the damage is pretty attractive. I’ve had some fun with it in PvP before, running GS/Mace/Shield, with berserker gear and Strength / Discipline / Berserker.

Lol, well… RIP thieves. That 450 range also explains why I was eating those 15k ADs… I probably wasn’t even near or looking at the Beserker when he used it.

While I’m definitely keen to dish this out to my opponents, I can’t help but think the amount of unblockable and/or insanely high damage aoe will make melee the absolute worst place to be.

Maybe dropping double melee in favour of having more ranged pressure will be the way of the future in wvw. Double melee’s working reasonably well for me now, but we already have the pirate ship meta at the large scale and it may only be a matter of time before havocs get better at creating wastelands wherever players group in melee range.

I’ll have to seriously consider working on rifle or bow builds (though I can’t see bow working, atm) in case that day ever comes. Till then, I’ll keep riding the Melee Pain Express as long as it still gets results, and add 450 range Arc Dividers to the list of new threats to watch out for.

I’m Biff Rangoon, and I approved this message.
Ehmry Bay | Omg Brb Icecream Truck (ICEE)

(edited by Choppy.4183)