Guild Wars 2

Berserker or Vanilla?

I’m not a math guy, could barely pass basic algebra. I’ve been seeing some of the vets say that with all the damage modifiers in STR line, Vanilla is more powerful than berserker dps wise.

Any thoughts?

Didn’t you already ask this question? We’ll lets put it this way…in pvp you either run STR, or Berserker, regardless of build. (lets be honest there’s no reason in pvp to run anything other then those two unless you are theory crafting or just messing around) So, the question becomes, what is better Berserker or Strength? And in truth, everything you can do with Strength you can do with Berserker. Need might? Berserker has it, Need Bleeding and confusion? Mace primal has it…which is stupid. Need fury, Berserker, Need Quickness? Berserker, Need stability? Berserker. Oh stab is not a strength thing? Oh well. Need extra damage? Berserker has ferocity and a damage increase in berserk mode, and most berserker primals are more powerful. So yeah, berserker hits harder if for no other reason than it literally doubles your options.

Berserker (Def-Disc-Zerk) has much better burst output potential in primal state, but vanilla (Str-Def-Disc) probably has higher damage overall (i.e. over the course of a minute).

So if we’re talking about fighting immobile practice golems all day, my guess is vanilla would win. If you’re fighting real people, my money would be on the Berserker.

What wins actual fights with a high power build is overwhelming opponents’ health pools and defenses, not attrition. Berserker is better equipped to do that than vanilla, imo, it’s just concentrated in the primal state. My guess is that was Anet’s intent, and they seem to have succeeded there.

Honestly i don’t like the idea of Elite Specs. to me elite specs should have replaced the Core Specialization. so for example Discipline should have been replaced by Berserker, Arcane should have been replaced with Tempast, Etc. As it stands all of the Elite specialization completely overpower the core class.

you landing lots of head butt in 1v1? not against good players – so berserker is basically just a bad vanilla most of the time. i havent lost a single duel vs a berserker spec so far, but 1 time vs other vanilla xD biggest deepz would of course be str & zerk & disc

I think that speaks higher to your skill than to the spec.

why would you say that emkelly, it doesnt make sense either way.
choppy my money would be on the vanilla.. but yeah not very sure.
if we could get 2 high end players to duel it out for us ..

ya it makes perfect since, if you can’t bait out endurance and land skills you are bad.

It really comes down to the number of bursts the Berserker is able to land, whether he lands Headbutt or not (though that’s obviously a clutch hit, given the damage, adren gain→primal state, and 4s stun).

Arc Divider is a big, spammable hit, and you can usually get a few of those out plus a Decapitate out and all the tricks a vanilla warrior can put out (whirlwind, shield bash, etc) during a single primal state.

If someone can kite/mitigate all of that during primal, then the Berserker’s less of a threat than vanilla. But if they can’t (due to build, class, skill, or circumstance), then the Berserker’s putting out way more pressure in a short period of time than can the vanilla warrior, and that would make it more lethal.

Full disclosure: I run vanilla and win most of my fights, including against berserkers and other vanillas. My favourite warrior opponent at the moment also runs vanilla. But I’ve found opponents running Berserker have more tools to be more dangerous than vanillas of equal skill (even if I’m beating most of them anyway).

i switch to vanilla to deal more dmg(to tanks)while having good sustain with defense traitline.

I switch to berserker for fast combo wombo sustain machine.