Guild Wars 2

After playing it a lot more in PvP and PvE I cant help but think the spec wont see play. It doesn’t change anything for the warrior. The traits that the warrior NEEDS are too spread out, and it feels like the primal bursts were just given random effects without thinking of play.

PvP:

- Still needs the standard stances to survive any fight.
- Rage skills are useless
- Heal will be ignored like everything else
- Headbutt is okay, but for a power build you’re obviously going to take rampage
- The spec does nothing to address the problems that the warrior has
- Most importantly! While the Warrior feels like its staying the same, everything around it is getting far stronger.

PvE:

- In challenging content there’s lackluster DPS and no team support. So warriors will still be banner spammer might machines.
- In open world the standard dps build is far stronger
- If you DO want a condi character, the Ranger, Engi, Necro, Guard will sweep this under the table.

Primal Skills: They just don’t make sense! and they ALL need a damage buff.

Arcing Sear:
It feels like the fire field was added just for the heck of it and I really cant figure out why anyone would want to use it. Would anyone run a gs for a hybrid or condi build? Adding a burn to a weapon that has no condi and no place in a condi build just makes no sense to me! Furthermore in a power build the standard burst is FAAAAAAR superior.

I would MUUUUUCH rather have the spear primal burst, Wild Whirl (Strike all foes around you, burning and pulling them in). Then you could at least primal burst > 100b or something … but adding a fire field that the only real option is to the whirl through is pretty useless especially because anyone running a gs isnt doing condi damage!

I wont bother going through the rest of them because others already have.

The Concept

This is going to sound really odd, but the Reaper is a far better Bezerker than the Bezerker. On the reaper you can just spam might with super high dps and gravedigger … with no recharge below 50%. Yet the Bezerker can spam crappy bursts that make no sense every 5 seconds if they have the adrenaline, oh annd the reaper gains an extra health bar.

At first I thought the spec was okay, now I think its just accepting that i’ll be playing the same old warrior builds that I have been for 3 years.

The spec needs a lot of work to find any meaningful place.

Edit: Fast Hands needs to be baseline

For me, the thing is that the ideea behind the spec is wrong. Trying to make warrior a condi class, when we know that warrior can’t condi or at least his condi is so kitten and other classes do it so much better that is worthless to even try to play a condi warrior. You can do it for fun if you like, shure, but it will never be a thing in warrior.
And it’s ok, warrior shouldn’t be a condi class and I think the majority of warrior players agree with me, and they wouldn’t like a condi warrior anyways!?!
What warrior should be it’s a power melee class, and what Berserker should be it’s that power taken to the limit. So much can be done with this class, with this ideea, that is really sad and questionable that Anet can’t make it work. The only reason that Bersek has a fire theme is the god kitten torch. But really the torch could just clean some condies and apply might and would be good, maybe 4 skill could knokdown. It’s doesn’t matter really, i wouldn’t mind if the new weapon is bad as long as the elite spec would be strong.
Please, go away from the fire theme, i don’t frinking want to be the opposite of Reaper, I think no1 does or care, we just want warrior to be good. Make Berserk what it should be, a fast, mad, raging, blood thirsting crazy mofo.
I think Rampage is more berserk than Berserker is, or sadly, will ever be. From there you should get inspired Anet, from Rampage, not from the kittenty torch, like wtf?
I wouldn’t mind if you take something from the old Frenzy, and we would take 25%-30% more dmg in Berserk if the spec would be what it should be, what the name says it should be, what everyone wants it to be.

For someone who played Berzerker in pvp and WvW,

Berzerker, I can say, for now, its only good if you play condi build in pvp or roaming in wvw, but if you want or need dps I wouldn’t use Berzerker because there is nothing in the traits or the rage utility skill you can use for dps, I played Berzerker and the damage you get in Berzerker mode is less or useless.
like the Greatsword for example, the GS F1 normal burst have a great and nice damge and give fury, but the primal burst feels kinda less damage with aoe burning, why would I go Berzerk for a useless aoe burning if am playing dps, it would be better if the primal burst did more damage, cc or something useful.

Beserker needs alot of work and changes, Anet shouldn’t just focus on giving more condi builds and Nerf other builds for the warrior but also focus on makeing better skills and cc for group fights. Other wise Berzerker is useless.

@Naurgalen I think having berserk up until you exit combat is a great idea. However to avoid a dps loss primal burst skills need to be stronger. I think another neat idea would be going berserk tiggers random effects like frenzy or endure pain or berserkers stance etc. I think this trait line needs more of an identity if it wants to compete with defense or discipline even strength. Perhaps when berserk we take 20% less damage. This alone might cause people to take berserker over defense.

I think we should also get something like engi’s utility googles for blind immunity. Maybe have increased movement speed while berserk. There’s plenty you can do to make berserker a better traitline for pve/pvp.

There’s so much solid feedback in this thread, you guys are amazing. +1000

As to the Berserk itself it suffers from a fundamental flaw, it’s trying to rework warrior into something new without bothering to really give us anything new. Other classes got a ground up new form of gameplay that allowed Developers to build out new kits for them to flesh out the new niche they occupy, see Reaper/Dragonhunter/Daredevil. Warriors just got well… more of the same. Berserker doesn’t fundamentally change how people play the class and in fact makes it far more clunky to do so.

Not to mention it feels like very very little thought or testing went into this class; the damage, the practical utility, the skill/trait synergy none of these feel solid at all. Berserk is clunky to activate, clunky to manage, the primal bursts tied to it are usually far worse and less useful than what we already had.

Rage skills are massively unnecessary, seriously they’re just new flashy physical skills no one asked for, they’re in no way anything needed.

Right now without being overly dramatic almost every single aspect of Berserker needs to go back to the drawing board and Developers need to ask themselves if really adds anything to the class and/or if it’s worse than what we already have.

Also since no one has mentioned it how about adding something into the spec that allows you to slow down your adrenaline decay for a whole “hulk always angry” sort of thing. I mean warriors are still crippled by the hamfisted way adrenaline decay was changed a while back so doing something to help address that would go far in making the spec desirable.

Sharky.1470:

For me, the thing is that the ideea behind the spec is wrong. Trying to make warrior a condi class, when we know that warrior can’t condi or at least his condi is so kitten and other classes do it so much better that is worthless to even try to play a condi warrior. You can do it for fun if you like, shure, but it will never be a thing in warrior.
And it’s ok, warrior shouldn’t be a condi class and I think the majority of warrior players agree with me, and they wouldn’t like a condi warrior anyways!?!
What warrior should be it’s a power melee class, and what Berserker should be it’s that power taken to the limit. So much can be done with this class, with this ideea, that is really sad and questionable that Anet can’t make it work. The only reason that Bersek has a fire theme is the god kitten torch. But really the torch could just clean some condies and apply might and would be good, maybe 4 skill could knokdown. It’s doesn’t matter really, i wouldn’t mind if the new weapon is bad as long as the elite spec would be strong.
Please, go away from the fire theme, i don’t frinking want to be the opposite of Reaper, I think no1 does or care, we just want warrior to be good. Make Berserk what it should be, a fast, mad, raging, blood thirsting crazy mofo.
I think Rampage is more berserk than Berserker is, or sadly, will ever be. From there you should get inspired Anet, from Rampage, not from the kittenty torch, like wtf?
I wouldn’t mind if you take something from the old Frenzy, and we would take 25%-30% more dmg in Berserk if the spec would be what it should be, what the name says it should be, what everyone wants it to be.

Sorry what? Why should warrior not have a condi spec? How ridiculous, you must really get off to that Hunderp Blades.

Atticus.7194:

There’s so much solid feedback in this thread, you guys are amazing. +1000

As to the Berserk itself it suffers from a fundamental flaw, it’s trying to rework warrior into something new without bothering to really give us anything new. Other classes got a ground up new form of gameplay that allowed Developers to build out new kits for them to flesh out the new niche they occupy, see Reaper/Dragonhunter/Daredevil. Warriors just got well… more of the same. Berserker doesn’t fundamentally change how people play the class and in fact makes it far more clunky to do so.

Not to mention it feels like very very little thought or testing went into this class; the damage, the practical utility, the skill/trait synergy none of these feel solid at all. Berserk is clunky to activate, clunky to manage, the primal bursts tied to it are usually far worse and less useful than what we already had.

Rage skills are massively unnecessary, seriously they’re just new flashy physical skills no one asked for, they’re in no way anything needed.

Right now without being overly dramatic almost every single aspect of Berserker needs to go back to the drawing board and Developers need to ask themselves if really adds anything to the class and/or if it’s worse than what we already have.

Also since no one has mentioned it how about adding something into the spec that allows you to slow down your adrenaline decay for a whole “hulk always angry” sort of thing. I mean warriors are still crippled by the hamfisted way adrenaline decay was changed a while back so doing something to help address that would go far in making the spec desirable.

I am going to have to disagree. After getting a strong feel for it, Berserker appropriately acts as a two-edged blade for the Warrior.

Yes, there are fundamental number issues with the skills (burning durations on a couple attacks need a substantial improvement for instance).

Yes, there are a few clunky instances of what I like to call an ‘animation and effect’ issue. It is remarkably similar to how Daredevil has dodge-rolls that interfere with their play rather than enhance it, a lot could be smoothed out.

However…

The biggest misconception about the Berserker is that Berserk…is not supposed to be an improvement on your burst skills, it is supposed to be treated as a temporary change in how you play for the duration. Warriors profession mechanic right now has always been the management of our normal Burst skills, whether we use it or not. Berserker adds depth to that choice, it forces us to determine from our current weaponset what Burst might be more appropriate to use at the time.

Now we have to ask ourselves the following then:

- What does Berserker given its status want to open up to us when we use it?
- What downsides are there to using this traitline? Are those downsides required or perhaps they inhibit the intent of the traitline from viable use in any setting?
- What mechanically can be changed?

That last question I actually have another feedback for. Torch 5 burns 2 conditions and creates a fire field that pulses 4 times before exploding. Could it pulse 3 times, applying longer duration burning, and each pulse remove a condition for a total of three conditions?

Balsco.3682:

Sorry what? Why should warrior not have a condi spec? How ridiculous, you must really get off to that Hunderp Blades.

It’s just an oppinion, you don’t have to act like a kid about it…There are enough condi classes in the game, warrior doesn’t need to be one.
I rarely use GS, so no, I don’t get off to HB, but even if, it’s way better to get off to HB than a condi bomb…Or you like to be dirty and stack burns with ele? So fun…
You don’t have to agree with me, but don’t be a jerk about it !

My two main problems with berserker are the dubious usefulness of going berserk, and the fact that the class did not get any better means of surviving than facetanking all the damage flying around atm.

Going berserk is a very inconsistent decision, as you can easily screw your own situation by locking yourself out of the usual utility of your burst skills, sometimes even ending up with a burst that is simply worse, but that weaponset is needed for said situation. An example is a spvp build using mace+torch / longbow. The lb primal burst is simply inferior to the normal one. The same goes for hammer, which primal burst is very situational and even harder to land (l2p).
My suggestion would therefore be to enable both F1 and F2 during berserk, but toning the modifiers of the original burst down to fit the one-bar adrenaline mechanic. This would really make the berserk worthwhile as it would be much more flexible, again e.g. I can either use my mace to CC with normal burst or apply more pressure with primal burst, and the same goes for other weaponsets.

My other suggestion is giving the berserk something that helps the player to stay alive. To go into the traitline, one has to make great sacrifices in either damage, defense or utility, and in return doesn’t get anything remarkable to compensate for it. I honestly hoped for some mechanic true to the name berserker, e.g. 20% chance on hit to get healed for a small amount, or even more zerky, to drain own life to gain some 2s of protection and resistance, in other words some niche mechanic to keep the war going. The burning design also could have brought at least one ability capable of blinding. There surely is potential for making the war into something more than a hulk, but this time a hulk that is on fire.

The conclusion is that the current state of berserker doesn’t really do anything for the class that can’t be done without the traitline, often event with much better results.

Thus far, I’m not impressed by the berserker. Overall, the berserker feels underpowered. Graphically, the berserker skills looks pretty good, but functionally they aren’t.

It feels a bit sluggish to go berserk with F2, and almost always I want to follow that up with a burst, so I wish there was some kind of option to merge or auto-chain F2 and F1 activation.

In berserk, I was finding it hard to get off many bursts, even with the faster burst recharge,. The fact the primal bursts have lower overall DPS than the regular bursts really seems counterproductive here. Most of the time I tried going berserk, it felt like the trade-off was not worthwhile, and I would have been better off just using normal bursts instead.

As for skills, I didn’t get a chance to test all weapons, but I spent a fair bit of time trying out Sword+Torch and Axe+Torch. The sword’s primal burst didn’t seem very effective. Axe offers a few more self combos with the mobile fire field, but the overall DPS of the axe primal burst also felt lacking.

Torch #4 looks cool, but it didn’t seem to do much damage. Also, the 400 range seems too limited. After a while I sort of stopped using it since it didn’t seem to be worth activating it.

Torch #5’s mobile fire field seems like it should be useful, but I was having a hard time really making good use of this. There are a few self-combos, but the main beneficiaries of this would likely be other players, and it was hard to coordinate with anyone in the beta setting. Beyond the fire field, the dps from this skill seems too low.

I also tried out GS, Longbow and Rifle. GS primal burst doesn’t seem very useful. Meanwhile, the Longbow primal burst seems hard to use effectively – lining up mobs in a tight narrow formation tends to be very terrain dependent. I did find this worked a bit with kiting, but usually the mobs only hit a max of 2 circles before the duration ended. I could probably hit them about as often with the large radius of a fully charged regual LB burst, likely dealing even more DPS. As a warrior player that enjoys using long bow, the primal burst is simply too weak compared to the normal burst.

The rifle surprised me a bit – I tend to dislike rifle over all, but it’s primal burst almost seemed viable. Unfortunately, the rest of the rifle skills remain problematic, and even the slight IAS from berserk doesn’t fix that.

About that IAS, I never really noticed much of a speed improvement while berserk, and I didn’t notice much increase in overall dps from it. I think that increasing this could help. Alternately, a further boost in power, fury or conditions while berserk might be a solution.

The berserker needs some enhancements. In its current form it doesn’t offer enough to make me switch from using other warrior builds.

What’s the maximum range of the taunt and bleed effects of berserk mode? I think it bleeds more within 180 range rather than outside 180 range.

I went around with my Berserker in Rampager gear, and I had a blast. I will definitely be trying one once Heart of Thorns goes live.

However, I do have a few nitpicks. Using Sword/Torch and Rifle, a few things bugged me.

Torch’s 4 skill needs to have it’s damage centralized. It’s way too unreliable.

Torch’s five was fun, but I feel like the ending explosion of the skill needs to be more graphically represented.

Rifle’s still really subpar. I don’t know what it is, since I don’t use Rifle often but I wanted to try out Gunflame. Outside of Berserk, I never used it. The Primal Burst didn’t impress me much, since I used it on single targets, mostly.

Sword is still a reliable source of condition damage, and while it’s primal burst didn’t do much direct damage, I think I saw some pretty high condition damage ticks. All this makes me think is that Berserker is probably meant to be a hybrid? Sinister, Rampager or whatever seems like it might get the most out of it.

I liked the traits, and the fighting game references. Most of them looked cool kitteneful. This is mostly a nitpick, but I didn’t like having to choose between torch cooldowns and precision → ferocity boost.

All in all, I had fun. It felt undertuned, but that’s normal for a classes’ first outing into a beta environment. I’m sure it’ll be improved by the time Heart of Thorns rolls around.

Sharky.1470:

It’s just an oppinion, you don’t have to act like a kid about it…There are enough condi classes in the game, warrior doesn’t need to be one.
I rarely use GS, so no, I don’t get off to HB, but even if, it’s way better to get off to HB than a condi bomb…Or you like to be dirty and stack burns with ele? So fun…
You don’t have to agree with me, but don’t be a jerk about it !

Tell me what on earth is a “condi class” please? There’s no such thing, every profession has power and condition builds, warrior isn’t and shouldn’t be different, whether you like it or not is debatable, but irrelevant to the topic.

I want to use the torch but feel held back with the ‘elite’ specialisation. Why can’t we have another skill training tab made for the weapon where you have to ‘Train’ to use it, once unlocked it can be used with all specialisations rather than just the elite. (But you must have HoT to unlock).
((Still feeling pretty bummed out about making Rodgort to be disappointed by the specialisation, ha!))

Chrisco.5732:

After playing it a lot more in PvP and PvE I cant help but think the spec wont see play. It doesn’t change anything for the warrior. The traits that the warrior NEEDS are too spread out, and it feels like the primal bursts were just given random effects without thinking of play.

PvP:

- Still needs the standard stances to survive any fight.
- Rage skills are useless
- Heal will be ignored like everything else
- Headbutt is okay, but for a power build you’re obviously going to take rampage
- The spec does nothing to address the problems that the warrior has
- Most importantly! While the Warrior feels like its staying the same, everything around it is getting far stronger.

PvE:

- In challenging content there’s lackluster DPS and no team support. So warriors will still be banner spammer might machines.
- In open world the standard dps build is far stronger
- If you DO want a condi character, the Ranger, Engi, Necro, Guard will sweep this under the table.

Primal Skills: They just don’t make sense! and they ALL need a damage buff.

Arcing Sear:
It feels like the fire field was added just for the heck of it and I really cant figure out why anyone would want to use it. Would anyone run a gs for a hybrid or condi build? Adding a burn to a weapon that has no condi and no place in a condi build just makes no sense to me! Furthermore in a power build the standard burst is FAAAAAAR superior.

I would MUUUUUCH rather have the spear primal burst, Wild Whirl (Strike all foes around you, burning and pulling them in). Then you could at least primal burst > 100b or something … but adding a fire field that the only real option is to the whirl through is pretty useless especially because anyone running a gs isnt doing condi damage!

I wont bother going through the rest of them because others already have.

The Concept

This is going to sound really odd, but the Reaper is a far better Bezerker than the Bezerker. On the reaper you can just spam might with super high dps and gravedigger … with no recharge below 50%. Yet the Bezerker can spam crappy bursts that make no sense every 5 seconds if they have the adrenaline, oh annd the reaper gains an extra health bar.

At first I thought the spec was okay, now I think its just accepting that i’ll be playing the same old warrior builds that I have been for 3 years.

The spec needs a lot of work to find any meaningful place.

Edit: Fast Hands needs to be baseline

Sir, i couldn’t agree more with you, i think your one of a few that has been rolling warrior since day one, just like me, and knows what the actual problems here is, if you ask me personally i can tell you that arena net meta is to kill warrior as much as they can because it use to be the “best” class out there before trait system was changed, so basically all clases got busted and warriors shouts got nerf… awesome logic.

Anyways i want to point out the fact gw2 is a complete disaster i mean u must obligatory use 2 endure pain to at least survive for 8 s and ofc berserker stance… ppl are talking about builds and stuff that are actually but REAL big problem lies on the DMG that is completly broken,

I love this game so im just going to give up on wvw and pvp but ill still pve, the only viable thing to do right now.

I want also to congratulate the developers that work on the art and history of the game designe and what ever that has to do with pve and the enviroment… but ill respectfully say this, the people working on “balancing” the game? they must go if i was colling they would be fired long ago.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sharky.1470:

Balsco.3682:

Sorry what? Why should warrior not have a condi spec? How ridiculous, you must really get off to that Hunderp Blades.

It’s just an oppinion, you don’t have to act like a kid about it…There are enough condi classes in the game, warrior doesn’t need to be one.
I rarely use GS, so no, I don’t get off to HB, but even if, it’s way better to get off to HB than a condi bomb…Or you like to be dirty and stack burns with ele? So fun…
You don’t have to agree with me, but don’t be a jerk about it !

I agree with Balsco, that opinion of yours is irrelevant and warriors should be able to use a reliable condi class.

I understand how the primal f1 abilities are supposed to be weaker than the normal versions and accept that, however i do think that they either need to be useful for both condi and power builds, or at least already good power weapons should have power based primal f1.

The biggest issue with Berserker spec is however spec tree.

Smash brawler.. i do not think anyone will take it even in pve.

Savage instinct, since you cannot have full adrenaline on demand it is pretty useless for anything except removing the self stun from headbutt, am i the only one who thinks it is a bit stupid that the use of it is to remove a negative effect from another ability we have? Still, i found Savage instinct to be the best one, but i still think it should be better.

Always angry is ok, not good. Ok

Blood reaction is alright but boring, again, i think it should have another more active effect to it.

Dead or alive is utterly pointless, it is basically a small heal that will not save you. You need to either get some kind of immunity when you reach 0% or something to make Dead or alive do what it meant to do.

I am fine with Fatal frenzy.

Bloody roar seemed pretty good to me.

Eternal champion was good to me also.

Also going Berserk did not feel like it had any real advantage, quite the opposite in fact. The only reasons for me personally to go berserk was to remove a self stun. That is it. The form itself needs some kind of improvement.

I felt this is the biggest problem a berserker has, nearly all of the specialization perks are bad or at least worse than other warrior spec trees.

EDIT: I cannot comment on condi Berserker, i did not really test condi zerker since condi is not my playstyle in general.

I agree the mechanics of it is odd, having to get full adrenaline just to switch to it then you lose it? Only to have to get it back by that time youre done maybe get a skill off you guys should make it like death shroud or something. You need to drop a lot of other stuff just to spec in something that just doesnt last long enough

My 2 cents on the berserker. I was overall not terribly impressed with the berserker, I don’t think it really offers a really distinct playstyle from standard warrior and the bonuses offered seem a bit weak in general.

I think the core of the issue I have with it is the berserk mode itself, having played it and tried it out it feels really weird to have berserk on a static duration. The point of going into a berserker frenzy is to go nuts until everything is dead not for a quarter of a minute until you’re winded and need a lie-down.

Given that it requires a full 30 adrenaline before going berserk I don’t think it would be unreasonable to have a mechanic that increases berserk duration, I’d suggest something like on kill duration or using a primal burst, either of these would help push the sort of blood-rage playstyle they seem to be going for/what the name berserker implies. With a longer duration berserk mode you could also ad potential mechanics for manually ending berserk mode early and generally make the mode a lot more interesting overall.

Whoops, I missed posting this in my various elite feedback postings earlier today. For what it’s worth from someone who barely touches warrior:

Berserker:
This was both more fun and squishier than I expected. That could have to do with my layering on a bit more berserker gear than I have on my two warriors. I don’t think I really figured out how best to use the F2, and I didn’t enjoy how fast Adrenaline drained away even though that’s necessary for balance. I kept Signet of Rage because the head butt seemed more gimmicky than useful to me.

Once I realized that the F2 burst depended on the equipped weapon, I got a little more effective by swapping out to the one that would do me best in the situation. I was sword/torch and longbow so I got the fireballs and the ground disks of fire. I’d elected to make the smallest cutest female asura I could for Berserker and having her shout in high pitched rage “You can’t stop me!” was adorable.

I can’t say it really changed my warrior play, not that I use my warriors very much. It pretty much just added a few more options to adrenaline use. Likely I should have written this on Saturday when Berserker play was fresher in my mind; I really can’t recall the utilities and their effects other than the rock punch which looked flashy but was mostly just one more damage dealing button.

Coming from an sPvP standpoint (not WvW or PvE), i think the berserker is pretty bad.

A lot of the feedback offered in this thread already touches on nearly all my thoughts as well, so yeah

Kalendraf.9521:

It feels a bit sluggish to go berserk with F2, and almost always I want to follow that up with a burst, so I wish there was some kind of option to merge or auto-chain F2 and F1 activation.

It would be great to have F1 AND F2 ALWAYS be available and not overlapping – however if you choose the F2 berserk-burst that would simultaneously activate berserk mode (locking up your F1 for its duration). That (plus maybe adding a couple of seconds) might also change the feeling of berserk mode not lasting long enough.

I also think that some of the berserk burst skills need a bit of rework – greatsword for example. Right now I just don’t see the benefit of it – using a direct damage weapon without condi to apply burning once in a while for the cost of raw damage? really?

I very much liked the hammer berserk F1 though. It’s the one skill that felt like being enraged to me (without nescessarily being that usefull).

As far as the utilities go, I’m not sure what to think. Summoning rocks just doesn’t feel like a berserk to me. Headbut is nice but the animation doesn’t convey the feeling, it’s so subtle I don’t even see it with all the other effects swirling around.

This is the build I ran in pvp:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FvJAQNAsfTnMdA1kitkCmkCElilqATpHE7iBILuGQA4t0uantA-TpBHwAW2fAwDAQwhAIZZgAHBgBnAAA

I annihilated people. If you think you need stances or were trying to run sword torch GS or some nonsense it does not surprise me if you fail. This spec is awesome and the spiritual successor to the almight Shoutbow.

When I get to my computer I’m gonna write my in depth feedback. In short Berserker is awesome and new and does in involve some paradigm shift on your part. If it is uncomfortable for you, good. There is a learning curve with elite specializations that people will see.

My two-cents, PvP PoV:
First things first, the F1 and F2 overlap need some fixing. Able to watch the skill’s cooldown visually is crucial during fights. Overall specs of Berserker is not too shabby, I can see what Anet want the Berserker specialization to be. The primal bursts aren’t too bad as others make it out to be.

Other points to touch is the berserk mode having issues with how it is active and not. Personally, I would like it how you can activate the F2 and deactivate it, similar to Necromancer’s death shroud. By allowing us to have more control over when we activate berserker and when we want to deactivate will allow warriors to bring more to their gameplay.

For example, I want to use the sword regular burst vs primal burst. Both skills are nice, but used differently in its own situations. When I activate primal burst, I may destroy projectiles and burn at will, but then I want to immobilize with Flurry(after the primal burst cooldown is fine). To do so, there is that wait time while in berserk mode. I don’t mind the cooldown after berserk mode ends, however, being able to go into and out will be godsend.

Regards,

It’s quite simple, from an sPvP point of view, without berserker stance and defy pain warrior still melts like delicious icecream. We are locked into taking stances and we are locked into taking defense and discipline and strength is highly recommended.

In WvW we are basically still stuck with nerfed shouts and nerfed warhorn (both nerfed for what reason exactly?), nerfed leg specialist that got nerfed because of Arrowcarts, triple nerfed adrenaline mechanicsm (triple nerf in one single patch, even tho Anet always said that they’re only gonna do small adjustments, lol).

Berserker does not address any of the issues that warrior has, honestly I even have the feeling no one bothered addressing them.

Rage utility skills are completely random, they have no utility in them actually and are even more useless than physical skills line. The bugged bull’s charge seems like an awesome choice over any rage utility skill, for real.

Torch #5 with some tweaks and buffs could be a decent skill and is the only thing in the whole berserker idea where Anet actually went a little creative…

Torch #4 nothing special…

Primal burst skills are very unimaginative, I’m very disappointed by those. Why stick to the formula that the original burst skills had and just add some aoe to all of them, that I do not understand.

From a WvW point of view it seems like all the awesomeness of primal burst skills was put into Rifle. Where exactly is the logic of Gun flame being 10 times as awesome as Decapitate, considering the range and all the advantage that comes with range. But I dare not complain about that too much, because Gun Flame is one of two good things that Warrior got with Berserker (atleast in WvW), and judging from how Anet treats warrior I have a strong hunch that Gun Flame will get nerfed while all other Primal burst skills stay untouched and quite useless.

Sword PR burst – useless.
Hammer PR burst – counterproductive, I made a topic about it – Why would I want to push enemies away from me?! Warrior has no pulls, I find that very weird.

I have been saying for 3 years that Warrior has to go back to the drawing board, the whole class. This berserker spec only proves that further. Anet is struggling to make something out of it, because the whole class is locked into taking certain traits and utility skills with ANY KIND of build.

The initial desing of warrior having stances on adrenaline bar was the right way to go. Condi cleanse is something that warrior should have through spending adrenaline on F1-F4, same goes for fast run/faster attack speed and a defensive/offensive battle stance.

Video Edition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1FV-QEzxbE

Hey guys so this weekend I was able to get my hands on the Berzerker and I had a ton of fun headbutting people to death. I made a condi build, a shoutbow build, a power build a condi-shout build (without the bow) and each build worked such that I believe players with more experience with the class could easily make the builds greater than great. I can already see what the Berserker meta will look like and it going to be annoying for all the other classes out there, unless you’re a Necro, in which case, you can eat a skullgrinder!
That said though, the Berzerker is not without it’s issues.

The Skills
I feel Savage leap shouldn’t be ground targeted, unnecessarily bugs down the skill, Wild Blow’s activation is on the slow side, whiffs half the time but hits like a truck when you do land it, Shattering Blow is pretty good love the skill, Outrage is also really nice but I feel the lack of stab sometimes which makes me go back to balanced stance or Dolyak signet. Headbutt is just an amazing skill and shouldn’t be changed in any way.

The Traits
Some of the Traits for the Berserker are pretty good, Savage Instinct, Dead or Alive, Bloody Roar and Eternal Champion are all in the good/great category, the rest of the traits have very little going for them in comparison. Smash Brawler is only really useful in PvE so it’s just okay same with Blood Reaction.
Last Blaze needs to apply at least 2-3 stacks of burn for 2s or 1 stack for 4s because right now, it’s not looking too good with the very low base duration.
Heat the Soul Would be great if the Torch actually seemed like it could pose a threat but it doesn’t. Maybe when combined with Long bow it does but on it’s own? It’s just meh.
King of Fires same problem as Last Blaze, I think it needs to have a higher stack of burns for 2 seconds or 1 stack but a longer base burn duration.

The Weapon
Blaze Breaker, the description calls it a deadly shockwave. I call it a skill I have no reason to use. It’s the same issue that the burning traits have. It doesn’t pose a threat to your target and you don’t feel powerful whilst using it. My question is, What am I supposed to do with a 2s burn that doesn’t even go past 3s when I try to stack burn duration on it? If this skill applied 5stacks of burn for 2 seconds, I’d be totally fine with that but 1 stack of burn for 2 seconds? That’s just pathetic. Increase the burn stacks, increase the cooldown as well if need be, just make it worth using.

Flames of War is pretty good in my opinon, only thing worth using on this weapon. Duration could be upped a bit but, not necessary if all other durations and possible stacks are increased.

Decapitate:
Needs to do the same damage it does to the target you hit, to all targets behind it. I mean really guys! Killshot’s Berserker form, Gun Flame can be used at 5 times the range and does the same damage to all targets! Why is the guy who is risking his backside in Melee worse off in damage than the guy killshotting 5 people for 11k damage from 1200units away?

Gun Flame
Really good skill, don’t change it.

Skull Grinder
Great skill, don’t change it

Rupturing Smash
This particular skill is very weak and doesn’t help the Hammer at all. I know it’s supposed to be a side-grade to Earthshaker but it’s not even good at being a side-grade, it just a downgrade. I think and improvement would be for it to release a shockwave that initially knocks people back and then returns to you pulling enemies in again, allowing the player to set-up other hammer skills. As it is now, I don’t feel the synergy with hammer like Earthshaker does.

Flaming Fury
Increase base burn duration please? 2s would be great.

Scorched Earth
Just doesn’t work at all. Just like Rupturing Smash, it needs another function. One idea would be for Scorched Earth to instead apply 4 stacks of burn for 8s instantly in an AoE. Basically a condition version of Gun Flame but without the direct damage.

Arcing Sear
Burn duration could also be increased on this skill.

And I think that’s it for me and the berzerker! I enjoyed playing the spec and if the above issues are dealt with I think we’d have a very powerful spec on our hands. Thanks for such a fun and addicting spec devs!

And if you guys want to see some gameplay of the Berzerker just click the link above. I do a lot of talking about what I like about the Warrior Elite spec in the video, as well as showing some gameplay for 2 of the specs I played.

I want to add that the berseker mechanic -as it is- is strange in itself:

Because the original burst are not maintained and the berseker ones are wanted to be “on the same level” (less dmg, but less CD) they exist only as an situational option: something to apply in the right moment in combat.

BUT that is not really what happens, because you need to first “charge” the berseker mode, it must not be on CD, and you must activate it and then the burst, making a really not good “on the fly” option for combat.

Voramoz.6790:

This is the build I ran in pvp:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FvJAQNAsfTnMdA1kitkCmkCElilqATpHE7iBILuGQA4t0uantA-TpBHwAW2fAwDAQwhAIZZgAHBgBnAAA

I annihilated people. If you think you need stances or were trying to run sword torch GS or some nonsense it does not surprise me if you fail. This spec is awesome and the spiritual successor to the almight Shoutbow.

When I get to my computer I’m gonna write my in depth feedback. In short Berserker is awesome and new and does in involve some paradigm shift on your part. If it is uncomfortable for you, good. There is a learning curve with elite specializations that people will see.

I ran something similar to this and had fun. Its nowhere near as good as you say it is, but its exactly what I wanted to run, it just wasnt as powerful as I thought it would be. I felt like a bootleg guardian

Voramoz.6790:

This is the build I ran in pvp:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FvJAQNAsfTnMdA1kitkCmkCElilqATpHE7iBILuGQA4t0uantA-TpBHwAW2fAwDAQwhAIZZgAHBgBnAAA

I annihilated people. If you think you need stances or were trying to run sword torch GS or some nonsense it does not surprise me if you fail. This spec is awesome and the spiritual successor to the almight Shoutbow.

When I get to my computer I’m gonna write my in depth feedback. In short Berserker is awesome and new and does in involve some paradigm shift on your part. If it is uncomfortable for you, good. There is a learning curve with elite specializations that people will see.

I ran pretty much identical build, with a couple of modifications in the end. While the build was fun to play (probably mostly because it was a bit different for a change) I highly doubt this spec will see any real competitive play unless some things in it are improved. Sundering leap and shattering blow serve no specific well argumented purpose to me. They mostly ended in the utility bar, because I wanted to try them out…

The other build I tried is of course a power build with strength, discpline, berserk, GS and optional secondary weapon set, and of course head butt. I think that build was actually really powerful. It doesn’t have that great moment where it just shines on the battlefield, like rampage war currently, but it is always really dangerous because of the low head butt cooldown, so there’s a lot of hundred blades and decapitates/final thrusts going around under the effect of quickness

The problem with berserker elite spec is that apart for using it for condi Mace crack warrior variants, there’s absolutely nothing going for it. All warrior core traits are spread across strength, defense and discipline it’s hard to choose berserker over the others. Warriors desperately need a trait line rework.

KhainPride.3987:

Im having a hard time maintaining adrenaline and anet wants me to use berserker at 30 adrenaline LOL

Sounds more like a L2P issue or build issue. I was swimming in adrenaline So I didn’t have any problems with often use of primal bursts.

From a PvE end game perspective Berserker has no real place. If you take Tactics and Strength as a given, replacing Arms with Berserker is, at best, a lateral move. The DPS is roughly similar in the shortest of fights (10 seconds or less) but quite a bit less in any fight lasting over 15 seconds.

The main reason for this is the downtime after Berserker ends is far, far too long for PvE. The build ONLY does acceptable dps when in berserker, so for a 30 second fight you’ll have 15 seconds of adequate dps and 15 seconds of garbage tier. This isn’t good enough, if the intention is to become part of the meta for Phalanx Strength direct damage builds in place of Arms. If the downtime of Berserker was reduced to less than 10 seconds it would be much closer to optimal, though it would still carry much downside.

For non-meta pve condition damage builds, the Torch is an upgrade over offhand sword. However, the best condition damage build for PvE (Arms, Discipline, Berserker) is about 2k less DPS than Ranger’s best condition damage build and about 6k less damage than the Engineer. The warrior condition damage pve build should be at least equal to the ranger’s, especially in light of the fact that the ranger brings superior team buffing (Spotter, Sun Spirit, Frost Spirit vs Banner of Strength).

The #4 skill is good, however the base burn duration is weak. 1 stack of burning that lasts 2 seconds is insufficient. It should be 2 stacks of burn, or one stack that lasts 4 seconds. Compared to Ranger’s Throw Torch it’s abysmal. Ranger gets 2 stacks that last base 6 seconds. Warrior gets 1 stack that lasts 2 seconds. Same cool down, ranger has a faster cast time. I would suggest buffing it to inflict the same burning scale as Throw Torch.

The #5 skill is pretty good but still weak. The pulsing burn should be base two seconds duration instead of 1. The end explosion has good base duration (5 seconds) but should be doubled from 2 stacks of burning to 4. This would make the skill competitive with Ranger’s Bonfire. I understand the advantage of a mobile fire field in PvP and that the skill is balanced with that in mind, but in PvE the relatively weak damage is crippling the weapon.

As far as traits, Blood Reaction is the only decent trait for a PvE power build. All the other traits only really exist because you have to pick one. The adept tier is especially bad. You have a WVW option, a condi option and a PvP option. At the GM level there is again no interesting trait for a Power build. I suggest changing one of them to perhaps increase the IAS of Berserk mode from 10% to 15%.

I would also suggest either merging King of Fires with Heat of the Soul so they are one good trait, or conversely, allow King of Fires to apply burn on crit to your target (rather than nearby enemies only) with the same ICD and effect as Engineer’s Incendiary Ammo.

Killyox.3950:

KhainPride.3987:

Im having a hard time maintaining adrenaline and anet wants me to use berserker at 30 adrenaline LOL

Sounds more like a L2P issue or build issue. I was swimming in adrenaline So I didn’t have any problems with often use of primal bursts.

I got the right to say its def not a L2P issue

I have 7 lvl 80 warriors, playing since head start, PvE is boring and too easy (dungeons, fractals).

I mostly WvW and play with 0 condi clears(sometimes I use brawler recovery but thats maximum of condi clear) and 0 stability. Maybe i dont rely on cleansing ire trait gg. Before june 23rd patch, I averaged 6 hours of solo roaming a day,2 hours zerg busting(some days off) and 3-4 hours of ppting/defending. Now its just zerg busting/gvg/1-2 hours of roaming

And the quote you quoted me on, “maintain” meant, Im always using it. Why would i need to get 30 adrenaline to enter a cool looking fiery aura when I can finish the job with normal warrior.

Lets see anet bring something new to the table with berserker. Im doing fine without it, berserker looks like a addition to condition builds and brings little to power play. It looks like you can just use it to aura stack and look bad kitten .

You guys need to understand that all classes in this game have a high skill cap.

Only thing I like about berserker is the precision to ferocity trait and gun flame burst skill because of the 100% velocity, it makes you feel like your actually hitting someone with a ultimate skill(feedback wise).

Berserker didn’t really feel right, or fun at all although I will admit I haven’t played it alot. Maybe condition builds are boring to me but IDK, like I said I didn’t play it alot, but from my limited observations I will give my opinion and thoughts.

The torch skills are cool, you becoming a moving fire field and remove conditions. You also get a cripple and a burn, cool and something I would live with as well. Some of the things like stability, breaking stuns and removing conditions on berserk is cool as well. Some of the rage skills are cool like headbutt, but they could be more fine-tuned. The 10 second stunbreaker is alright too.

However 2 major issues are this:

#1: The Primal Bursts are underwhelming. TBH I prefer the normal burst skills over the primal bursts for almost every weapon. The Longbow primal burst feels underwhelming, I prefer the bigger fire field around you. Decapitate is underwhelming, as well as Hammer, Greatsword, Sword etc. Mace and rifle are the only really interesting ones. But I would only really consider Mace the legit one. When you go into berserk mode you should get better burst skills, not different but underwhelming burst skills.

#2: The burns don’t last long enough. Enough said, the burns are pretty underwhelming, they need to last longer, doesn’t feel like it does enough damage

KhainPride.3987:

You guys need to understand that all classes in this game have a high skill cap.

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with this. Some have a lot higher skillcap and some have a lot lower skillfloor. Want it or not Warrior was always the most simple one even in GW1 and designed/branded as such before even closed betas began.

Killyox.3950:

KhainPride.3987:

You guys need to understand that all classes in this game have a high skill cap.

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with this. Some have a lot higher skillcap and some have a lot lower skillfloor. Want it or not Warrior was always the most simple one even in GW1 and designed/branded as such before even closed betas began.

Not sure if serious bro, everything is relative. I find thief easy to play, oh it must be low skill cap level. No dude, everything is relative. Thats why i dont name my warrior EZ mode. Lets discuss berserker pls.

Lets get back to berserker

I hope anet sees some of our negative and positive thoughts for berserker, hopefully bringing something nice to the table for the next beta event weekend.

One thing I felt like something was missing was the oomph factor

Like entering rampage mode, it makes me feel like OOOOOOOH YEAHHH I CAN DO ANYTHINGGGGGGG WHEEEEEEEEEEEE

when entering berserk, its like listening to Beethoven and following its rhythms.

Some more feedback.
Why not in berserk mode automatic weapon swap. Would reduce reliance on discipline.

Blood Reckoning is POINTLESS. Litany of wrath does not get used, so why a skill just like it? Maybe if it had like 10 seconds of coverage, though i did not run it with the defense line. Or maybe if it benefited more from Fire Damage as nothing in berserker helps you crit. Or just redesign it.

Last blaze could help cooldowns. Like either flat 20% off Rage or, if you hit with the fire -25%.

Overall Berserker in PvP still rocks and feels like Burst Burning Guard mixed with old Shoutbow. Was i invincible in my build? No. Was I able to feel powerful, chase people down and burn them to death? YES!
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FvJAQNAsfTnMdA1kitkCmkCElilqATpHE7iBILuGQA4t0uantA-TpBHwAW2fAwDAQwhAIZZgAHBgBnAAA
Edit: also I did not specifically test it. Sundering Leap and Head Butt must work with warrior sprint immob breaking.

samo.1054:

Voramoz.6790:

This is the build I ran in pvp:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FvJAQNAsfTnMdA1kitkCmkCElilqATpHE7iBILuGQA4t0uantA-TpBHwAW2fAwDAQwhAIZZgAHBgBnAAA

I annihilated people. If you think you need stances or were trying to run sword torch GS or some nonsense it does not surprise me if you fail. This spec is awesome and the spiritual successor to the almight Shoutbow.

When I get to my computer I’m gonna write my in depth feedback. In short Berserker is awesome and new and does in involve some paradigm shift on your part. If it is uncomfortable for you, good. There is a learning curve with elite specializations that people will see.

I ran pretty much identical build, with a couple of modifications in the end. While the build was fun to play (probably mostly because it was a bit different for a change) I highly doubt this spec will see any real competitive play unless some things in it are improved. Sundering leap and shattering blow serve no specific well argumented purpose to me. They mostly ended in the utility bar, because I wanted to try them out

Just to answer the why. Sundering leap i use for more fire aura. Flames of war, Savage leap, Sundering leap, and Combustive Shot or Scorched Earth. The result was what i expected lots of might, burning, and fire aura.

I ran either Shattering Blow against range heavy comps (Ranger, Engi), and Wild Blow for melee heavy comps (Warrior, Ele). Reflect on 15 seconds is great. Launch against downed foes is also nice.

ShakeyStorm.7180:

Going Berzerk mode is ridiculous. Just baseline attack speed bonus when TRAITED to Berserker and give us both F1 and F2 for normal and berserk burst skills.

Increase in attack speed would be awesome if it was during the entire berserker duration. Would really improve dual-wield builds too i think, which is something i thought berserker would finally show some love too. if dual wield agility would stack lets say a trait for berserker that added 10%, it would be 25% of fast attacking awesomeness!

This is what I would like to see. Beserk should be activated the same way however the adrenaline bar should remain at 30. It’s use should be similar to Necro’s DS and instead of LF use adrenaline over time while the mode is activated. Once you are in Berserk mode the PC would pulse out burning as that would add to the flavor and make the Elite spec more competitive compared to current burning builds for other classes. The burst skills should have a certain adrenaline cost perhaps 10 would still work and the CD should remain the same as well as counting as a a full burst. However remove the limit of 15s and let us Berserk until adrenaline runs out. This way the rage skills feel all the more useful. The elite might have to be changed to give less adrenaline or increase it’s CD so you can’t permanently berserk.

Sledge Stone.9017:

When I first read about Berserker I thought Warrior was getting its own version of a rampage inspired transformation like how necro was getting reaper shroud.. but its nothing like that. As it is, berserker is too weak. I main a Necro and a warrior is my alt. I’m completely happy with reaper but Berserker is so lackluster in comparison.

I had the same thought. I thought for sure a warrior would hulk out dishing out big hits and soaking up damage while in their zerker form. Bolt on a rage mechanic tied to something like the number of enemies around the warrior and they have the makings of a very fun and inspired build. Paired with a cool visual effect while in this state would have been pretty fantastic.

Instead we get a damage over time build… yawn. I know when I think undeniable force of war I think of… uhm… condition damage?

The planned changes for BWE3 were posted on Dulfy and while its a step in the right direction the berserker still looks very underwhelming