Slayer or Zerker?

Waddlez · July 2016

Based from mobility, DPS in general, and how fun it is to play on a personal level?

Not sure which I want to main at the moment

TheCamphor · July 2016

Berserker is my personal favorite, but if you've played pretty much any other class, the movement speed difference early on is enough to give you whiplash. Slayer is leagues apart in terms of mobility, but for an experienced Zerk, those differences are often negligible.

All in all, I think it comes down to which playstyle suits your preference:

Slayers are an evasive combo class where you get a lot of your DPS from chaining certain skills together on the fly and damage mitigation from rolling and/or i-frames. They can deal an impressive amount of damage without receiving much, if any, themselves if played correctly on top of having multiple stuns and reliable KD.

Zerk, on the other hand, has a very simple basic rotation with self-buffs mixed in and makes up for fewer overall hits with heavier hits. Early on, you can use Axe Block for damage mitigation, but in the endgame dungeons often this doesn't cut it and you have to get creative with skills like Leaping Strike, Overwhelm, Evasive Smash, or even tapping into tank stance if possible to briefly take advantage of the dodge roll to escape certain attacks.
Additionally, Zerk has a utility over Slayer of being a potential Sub-Tank. Even if you're looking at playing the class as solely DPS, there will be times where the actual tank blows or trips up and it's sometimes easier for you to take aggro in those situations until the tank is back than it is to have the boss target other DPS or the healer.

Ascundir · July 2016

TheCamphor wrote: »

or even tapping into tank stance if possible to briefly take advantage of the dodge roll to escape certain attacks.

Berserker can use Evasive Roll outside of Intimidation Stance.

Waddlez · July 2016

TheCamphor wrote: »

Berserker is my personal favorite, but if you've played pretty much any other class, the movement speed difference early on is enough to give you whiplash. Slayer is leagues apart in terms of mobility, but for an experienced Zerk, those differences are often negligible.

All in all, I think it comes down to which playstyle suits your preference:

Slayers are an evasive combo class where you get a lot of your DPS from chaining certain skills together on the fly and damage mitigation from rolling and/or i-frames. They can deal an impressive amount of damage without receiving much, if any, themselves if played correctly on top of having multiple stuns and reliable KD.

Zerk, on the other hand, has a very simple basic rotation with self-buffs mixed in and makes up for fewer overall hits with heavier hits. Early on, you can use Axe Block for damage mitigation, but in the endgame dungeons often this doesn't cut it and you have to get creative with skills like Leaping Strike, Overwhelm, Evasive Smash, or even tapping into tank stance if possible to briefly take advantage of the dodge roll to escape certain attacks.
Additionally, Zerk has a utility over Slayer of being a potential Sub-Tank. Even if you're looking at playing the class as solely DPS, there will be times where the actual tank blows or trips up and it's sometimes easier for you to take aggro in those situations until the tank is back than it is to have the boss target other DPS or the healer.

Thanks for this! I currently have my zerk at 55, guess I'll keep going on with it seeing as I do enjoy it overall

TheCamphor · July 2016

[quote="Ascundir";3684]
Berserker can use Evasive Roll outside of Intimidation Stance
[/quote]

I love this; Came back recently from a hiatus and started playing on a new server, and now you have me feeling all excited and happy to be here.

Edit(x100): Trying to quote on mobile, in other news, is turning out to be a nightmare.

Waddlez · July 2016

Yeah, I came back after a year a month or so ago

Nopi · July 2016

I used to play zerker for a long time but because I played it always wrong I can't say I'm a veteran zerker. One thing. Both zerker and Slayer have dash, which is an upgrade to moving speed. On slayer I hardly ever use it because of the many i-frames. You get a directional roll on Slayer you can use twice before it goes into cooldown. Perfect for back time. Zerker now has a directional roll too, but it's more clunky. Zerker was designed to anim cancel into block. Not roll. Slayer anim cancels most attacks into roll. So for zerker, Dash is in my opinion more important to have always on. Basically on a zerker you will pop dash, some buffs and run behind the enemy to attack. On Slayer, you use your buffs, position through rolling, then attack.

This game turned crit heavy when the new classes arrived, and Slayer gets a few crit chance glyphs, so you will see more crits from a Slayer. Zerker has a harder time now at the crit game, but apparently BHS will upgrade the class eventually.

Ascundir · July 2016

DISCLAIMER: Loud Music. Also, don't take my gameplay Seriously, I've only been playing Berserker for a few days.

Here's some possible "motivation"

Waddlez · July 2016

Damn you've done a lot in a few days

Ascundir · July 2016

It's a decent representation of how versatile the Berserker can be with the Intimidation stance.

vkobe · July 2016

slayer in theory they are second best dps now

NikoJimz · July 2016

Slayer, Slayer, subjective.

Zerk has awful DPS compared to Slayer now. Slayer is in the upper tier with Gunner and Reaper, Zerker is in the lowest tier with Archer. I've always enjoyed Slayer a million times more than Zerker, as well, though this was pre-65 Zerker, so I'm sure things are quite different.

Either way, Slayer is more than likely the better choice if you don't PvP.

Waddlez · July 2016

I dont do PVP, but after hitting 65 on zerker I can tell you that its better endgame, a lot better. I'd say its mid tier in DPS

dinners · July 2016

Charging skill class requires lower ping. Lower ping = charging faster.

Zerker = low ping

slayer = high ping is ok.

Waddlez · July 2016

dinners wrote: »

Charging skill class requires lower ping. Lower ping = charging faster.

Zerker = low ping

slayer = high ping is ok.

I live in England but play on NA, ping never seems to be a problem to me lmao

Banim · July 2016

I play zerker with high ping AND low FPS and I still can do decently well, I'm not the best zerker but I've certainly dedicated to it more investment and practice than most people. I'm sometimes beating slayers with lower ping in same gear (both imperator +15 weapon) that I wouldn't say are bad at all, though there is a lack of consistency in this because zerk DPS lives and dies by crit chance much more heavily than other classes and more often than not I struggle and have to work really hard under my conditions (AKA potato PC from Europe).

For perspective, generally for a class to have 66% crit chance is very good, with a mystic in party. When I get 66% it's pretty ok, but I can and ideally want 70%+. I get anywhere between 55-75%.

Surviving on zerk also tends to be harder and unless godly gear a lot of attacks in SSHM (and other past HMs/DS uppers) bleed through block, so you have to work with your movement skills or longer CD than average iframes. You want to do this in any dungeon anyway even if easy, less blocking time equals more charging attacks while you move to avoid hits, or using evasive smash to iframe to then unload the attack. Evasive roll is still extremely helpful and on shorter CD, ES is not always available when you need it. Also Unbreakable's cast animation is an iframe for emergencies. Slayers and other classes in general are way, way more straightforward when it comes to avoiding getting your rear handed to you.

So what I'm saying is, zerk requires a huge investment in gear (crit factor in particular) to start shining, before you have a lot of crit the class has a very hard time doing well, and after you have all that crit you really have to be at the top of your game to shine. Positioning and knowing the right rotation/priority skills (yes, there is such a thing for this class! And yes, a lot of zerks don't play correctly) has to be a pretty precise science or you get a heavy DPS loss in no time. IMO Slayer, while also requiring a lot of this investment in crit, gives overall a much easier time and can start doing well before a zerk does.

You have to really love zerkers and there is a reason you don't see many of us, and often those you see perform poorly.

The upcoming 20% thunderstrike damage buff is gonna be good stuff and I can't wait.

Slayer or Zerker?

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