Guild Wars 2

After playing BW3 I think it’s fairly safe to say that the biggest issue with the Berserker is the design of the form itself. Once you stop going Berserk you feel like a weaker Warrior and I often found myself not using my normal burst skills so that I could insure that once the form came off of CD I could just jump into it.

I assume the long CD was to differentiate Berserk from Death/Reaper Shroud. However, I feel like going Berserk would be much more fun if you could maintain the form longer by consistently hitting the enemy. Changes like this would be radical, but would really make Berserker feel like a totally different playstyle to Warrior:

• Berserk has no CD, but by default a lower duration.

• Landing Primal Bursts extends your Berserk time.

• You only have Berserk Form and Primal Bursts, you lose your regular Bursts.

Now, I know I’m being vague in terms of times. This is just something that you would have to mess around with until it feels right.

That probably sounds crazy to some, but if all you have to do to go Berserk is reach that 30 adrenaline and you have no CD on the form then you not only don’t need those normal bursts anyways, but it also makes a Berserker very different from Warrior.

Right now, Berserker just feels like Warrior + a new form. By losing their normal Burst skills, the player has truly become something very different than a standard Warrior. You will be consistently angry and a good Berserker will STAY angry. Right now, a Berserker gets angry for a very specific amount of time…then goes back to being a Warrior.

Having consistent access to 5 second CD bursts would also potentially make Discipline (Fast Hands) feel less mandatory. I still think Fast Hands should be baseline, but if the devs aren’t OK with this then at least you’ll be less punished for having a slower weapon swap because you’ll be able to push out more Primal Bursts.

Like many of my posts, I know a radical rework (more in the terms of design as opposed to the difficulty to implement) such as this will mostly likely not happen, nor will this be seen by any of the class design devs. However, the idea of Berserker being a spec that allows you to consistently enter this new form at the cost of your old abilities seems much more in line with what Elite Specializations are supposed to be. The Reaper seems VERY different from the Necro because a major part of their mechanics change. Berserker is Warrior + New stuff – a specialization you probably didn’t wanna give up for Berserker.