Hero's Berserker PVP Tactics
Nov 8, 2012 20:55:36 GMT -5
Post by hero on Nov 8, 2012 20:55:36 GMT -5
*****Work in progress, will take some time cause I need to farm coins D;.
Let me start out by saying that this guide is purely for tactics I use, and my opinions on skills, and how to use a zerker in 1v1 fights, whether in a duel or in war. In no way is this the only way to play a zerker and if you disagree with any points I make, more power to you.
Overview
I see a lot of berserkers in-game that simply do not know how to utilize their skills optimally, often missing simple combos and not chaining knock-down skills appropriately. It is my opinion that berserkers are arguably the best duelist class in the game, and has the potential to kill all but defenders in 1-2 rotations. However, this does not mean that one can simply mash buttons and expect success, a GOOD berserker is one that knows when to save or utilize precious stamina, when and HOW to use Escape, and most importantly UNDERSTAND the mechanics of this class.
In this guide (a work-in-progress) I will outline the skills that are crucial in PVP, how to appropriately use them, what a basic skill rotation looks like, and how you should adapt your play-style against the other classes.
I will NOT tell you how to skill your character, nor will I tell you what the optimal set is, this is all your choice to make.
Terms
Knock-down: This CC (crowd control) defines a berserker. Essentially it renders the opponent unable to take action for a window of ~2 seconds and can only be countered by the various "escape" spells of each class. There are no diminishing returns, however knowing how to chain knock-downs while maximizing opponent down-time is something all berserkers should master.
Flinch: This is a soft CC that makes the opponent unable to roll for ~0.5 second, and is applied by using certain skills or W-LMB or S-LMB auto attacks on opponents.
Skills
Crush: This skill knocks-down the opponent for ~2 seconds, and should only be used on an opponent that is already knocked-down . Level 3 makes this skill unblock-able.
Pros: Very useful for knock-down chain, is a pre-requisite to Vanquish
Cons: Has a ~1.25 second animation, scales very poorly (20% per skill point)
Dodge attack: This skill allows you to dodge any non-aoe attack, level 2 grants a 4 second 10% crit rate increase upon successful dodge. This skill sounds good on paper, but since it is most often chained from Neutralize, the dodge portion rarely gets utilized properly.
Pros: Grants dodge frames
Cons: Has poor damage, as its usually used as part of a chain, the dodge rarely procs when you need it.
Neutralize: This is the fastest skill in the berserker skill tree, and is your primary initiation skill. This skill causes flinch, allowing you to start your combo.
*****KEY POINT: I often see berserkers rely on this skill as their ONLY initiate skill and this is very wrong. Punishing these players is very easy, especially with a berserker, simply using upward strike negates Neutralize and allows you to start your combo. Neutralize is a very good initiation skill, but make sure it isn't obvious.
Pros: Very quick to animate, causes flinch.
Cons: Makes players rely on it as a crutch
Outrage: This skill NEEDS TO BE MAXED, I find it laughable that some players only take 1 point in this skill (unless you are PVE...scrub). 3 points into this skill cuts its cool-down by 40 seconds, giving you less downtime (in a majority of duels, especially BvD or BvB, a player will stall until outrage is up since it is difficult to consistently land 5 hits on a competent opponent without outrage skills). Also, the reduced cool-down has a very nice interaction with tranquility, allowing you to get off more heals and get back into outrage mode quicker (tranquility consumes the outrage buff). Not the mention the longer you are in outrage, the longer you will have 10% increase physical attack and 10% critical rate, this is HUGE.
Pros: Overall increase in DPS
Cons: NON GET THIS SKILL IF YOU PVP
Upward Strike: Provides RELIABLE dodge frames, and chains into vanquish. This skill positions your character forward and to the left, so knowing how to aim this skill is crucial.
Pros: Dodge frames are invaluable in PVP, they force your opponent to waste a valuable cool-down and provides you a window where your opponent is highly vulnerable.
Cons: Takes some practice to aim this skill
Tranquility: Recovers a set percentage of health and a base amount of stamina ( 20% hp and 70 stamina at max rank), at the cost of your outrage. Has a ~1.25 second animation. There are generally two situations this skill is used in, 1. To heal and 2. To recover stamina.
Situation 1
There is no way to consistently say when you should use this skill to heal yourself. Generally you want to keep off from consuming your outrage stack as long as possible to maintain your DPS, however, using this skill early on will allow you to have it off cool-down and potentially use it more often during a fight.
If you are fighting an opponent who you feel that you need a high pool of health to survive against (I.E vs berserkers you need to maintain the highest amount of HP at all times to ensure you have a chance to escape their knock-down chain), use this skill as soon as you need it. Using tranquility in this situation often wastes much of the 70 stamina that it recovers.
Situation 2
Berserker's infamous knock-down chain consumes stamina at a intense rate. Many berserkers simply disengage to pop tranquility or even not realize that they have no more stamina and simply stand there until they realize that they need to use tranquility, wasting valuable seconds. The key is to know when you will need to recover your stamina before you are completely out, while not interrupting your knock-down combo. There are many ways to do this, I personally prefer to use this right after a successful Nocturne as I find the downtime between Nocturne and your next action to be minimal, and immediately follow it up with a Neutralize. Of course this will depend on your skill-chain and cool downs, which I will outline later on.
Furious Dash: This skill is immensely useful, and your primary gap-closer. I always initiate a fight with this, due to the fact that when you are charging an opponent, you can initiate on your terms and puts them on the defensive. The key to using this skill is knowing the range of your skills, and timing your skills to the instant you step within that range, connecting the first hit often dictates the flow of the fight, as it forces the opponent to think about whether they use escape right off the bat, and potentially die in 1 knock-down chain later ( unless defender) or hold onto their escape and take a hit to a large portion of their health.
***IMPORTANT: Level two of this skill grants you a 10% damage reduction to the next hit you receive, PLUS IMMUNITY to the next CC you receive. Note however, these 2 effects are included in the same buff, thus the CC reduction is wasted if you are hit by a non-cc as well. I personally do not have level 2 of this skill, but when I do, it will open up a whole new bag of tricks. (Saving furious dash to use when sorcerers use ice block is one I am excited to do).
Bash: My favorite skill simply because of how underestimated it is. This skill is the second fastest skill available to berserkers and knocks-down and knocks-back the opponent. In my skill chain, this skill is key in maintaining the combo, and my favorite 1-2 punch is bash-> Move 2 steps->Nocturne. This is also another of my initiator skills, and will win you fights when the opponent is expecting a Neutralize opening.
Tornado: The strongest single skill in your arsenal (4 hits of 140%), however there are select situations where you should use this. This is because this skill ONLY knocks-down when the opponent is already flinched. If they are in normal stance, or knocked-down this skill will only do damage, and due to its long recovery time, will allow opponents to roll away.
Arma crush: Nothing too much to say, this skill is useful because it chains off the Neutralize combo and knocks-down the opponent.
Vanquish: Another amazing skill with ridiculous scaling (40% a point) and cooldown (3 seconds) and knocks-down the opponent. This skill is the key in all knock-down combos as it chains from crush and upward strike. The crush-vanquish combo is especially important, as it is 2 knock-downs in a row.
Crush-Vanquish
Crush knocks-down for approx ~2 seconds, and immediately you have a time period where you will be able to chain vanquish. It will be a waste to use 2 knockdowns in a row, so the combo I use is crush->auto->vanquish to maximize damage output. An important thing to note is that you can change direction before using vanquish.
Nocturne: The most infamous skill you have, dealing the highest single hit damage. This skill has a long animation, and is incredibly obvious, thus you only use it on knocked-down opponents. There is NO way to block this skill, even with bastion, as it is a downward striking skill.
Escape: This skill cancels all CC and provides you with a speed boost, while jumping you character backwards. Which direction you move depends on your camera angle. Knowing when and how to use this skill is very important. Most players use this to avoid a high hitting skill, however I believe the most optimal way to use this is right BEFORE the opponent uses a skill, allowing you a window to strike them during their skill animation.
Another way I like to use this skill is offensively, which catches many players off-guard, for example, allowing yourself to be frozen by sorcerers and turning the camera, escaping behind them, and opening with Neutralize.
PVP Tactics, Class specific
Berserk vs Berserk
This match-up is all about who utilizes escape and tranquility the most optimally. Essentially once either players uses escape, the next knockdown on that player will determine the match. First hit is crucial here, allowing you to force him to use escape first.
1. Pop outrage and Rush towards him, and make sure not to full engage, but rather circle around him
2. Based on what he does, gain distance and open with Neutralize, or counter with upward strike
3. If you land the first hit, start your combo, and force him to burn escape. The moment he does, pop tranquility to regain your stamina, and ROLL toward him, do not let him have a second to plan his next move. What will likely happen is that this aggression will mind-game him into doing what is wrong (attacking you) rather than play it safe and wait for escape cool-down. As soon as you see the animation of a skill, flip camera, ESCAPE behind him, open with neutralize into a knock-down chain and the match should be yours, the only way for him to get back up from this point is if you run out of stamina.
4. IF he landed the first hit on you, make you you use escape as soon as you see him start animation (likely crush) and try to land a hit on him. If unsuccessful, the best option is to wait on escape cooldown and roll often to try to land a hit. DO NOT ENGAGE AGAINST A COMPETENT BERSERKER WITHOUT ESCAPE, YOU WILL NOT LIVE.
Let me start out by saying that this guide is purely for tactics I use, and my opinions on skills, and how to use a zerker in 1v1 fights, whether in a duel or in war. In no way is this the only way to play a zerker and if you disagree with any points I make, more power to you.
Overview
I see a lot of berserkers in-game that simply do not know how to utilize their skills optimally, often missing simple combos and not chaining knock-down skills appropriately. It is my opinion that berserkers are arguably the best duelist class in the game, and has the potential to kill all but defenders in 1-2 rotations. However, this does not mean that one can simply mash buttons and expect success, a GOOD berserker is one that knows when to save or utilize precious stamina, when and HOW to use Escape, and most importantly UNDERSTAND the mechanics of this class.
In this guide (a work-in-progress) I will outline the skills that are crucial in PVP, how to appropriately use them, what a basic skill rotation looks like, and how you should adapt your play-style against the other classes.
I will NOT tell you how to skill your character, nor will I tell you what the optimal set is, this is all your choice to make.
Terms
Knock-down: This CC (crowd control) defines a berserker. Essentially it renders the opponent unable to take action for a window of ~2 seconds and can only be countered by the various "escape" spells of each class. There are no diminishing returns, however knowing how to chain knock-downs while maximizing opponent down-time is something all berserkers should master.
Flinch: This is a soft CC that makes the opponent unable to roll for ~0.5 second, and is applied by using certain skills or W-LMB or S-LMB auto attacks on opponents.
Skills
Crush: This skill knocks-down the opponent for ~2 seconds, and should only be used on an opponent that is already knocked-down . Level 3 makes this skill unblock-able.
Pros: Very useful for knock-down chain, is a pre-requisite to Vanquish
Cons: Has a ~1.25 second animation, scales very poorly (20% per skill point)
Dodge attack: This skill allows you to dodge any non-aoe attack, level 2 grants a 4 second 10% crit rate increase upon successful dodge. This skill sounds good on paper, but since it is most often chained from Neutralize, the dodge portion rarely gets utilized properly.
Pros: Grants dodge frames
Cons: Has poor damage, as its usually used as part of a chain, the dodge rarely procs when you need it.
Neutralize: This is the fastest skill in the berserker skill tree, and is your primary initiation skill. This skill causes flinch, allowing you to start your combo.
*****KEY POINT: I often see berserkers rely on this skill as their ONLY initiate skill and this is very wrong. Punishing these players is very easy, especially with a berserker, simply using upward strike negates Neutralize and allows you to start your combo. Neutralize is a very good initiation skill, but make sure it isn't obvious.
Pros: Very quick to animate, causes flinch.
Cons: Makes players rely on it as a crutch
Outrage: This skill NEEDS TO BE MAXED, I find it laughable that some players only take 1 point in this skill (unless you are PVE...scrub). 3 points into this skill cuts its cool-down by 40 seconds, giving you less downtime (in a majority of duels, especially BvD or BvB, a player will stall until outrage is up since it is difficult to consistently land 5 hits on a competent opponent without outrage skills). Also, the reduced cool-down has a very nice interaction with tranquility, allowing you to get off more heals and get back into outrage mode quicker (tranquility consumes the outrage buff). Not the mention the longer you are in outrage, the longer you will have 10% increase physical attack and 10% critical rate, this is HUGE.
Pros: Overall increase in DPS
Cons: NON GET THIS SKILL IF YOU PVP
Upward Strike: Provides RELIABLE dodge frames, and chains into vanquish. This skill positions your character forward and to the left, so knowing how to aim this skill is crucial.
Pros: Dodge frames are invaluable in PVP, they force your opponent to waste a valuable cool-down and provides you a window where your opponent is highly vulnerable.
Cons: Takes some practice to aim this skill
Tranquility: Recovers a set percentage of health and a base amount of stamina ( 20% hp and 70 stamina at max rank), at the cost of your outrage. Has a ~1.25 second animation. There are generally two situations this skill is used in, 1. To heal and 2. To recover stamina.
Situation 1
There is no way to consistently say when you should use this skill to heal yourself. Generally you want to keep off from consuming your outrage stack as long as possible to maintain your DPS, however, using this skill early on will allow you to have it off cool-down and potentially use it more often during a fight.
If you are fighting an opponent who you feel that you need a high pool of health to survive against (I.E vs berserkers you need to maintain the highest amount of HP at all times to ensure you have a chance to escape their knock-down chain), use this skill as soon as you need it. Using tranquility in this situation often wastes much of the 70 stamina that it recovers.
Situation 2
Berserker's infamous knock-down chain consumes stamina at a intense rate. Many berserkers simply disengage to pop tranquility or even not realize that they have no more stamina and simply stand there until they realize that they need to use tranquility, wasting valuable seconds. The key is to know when you will need to recover your stamina before you are completely out, while not interrupting your knock-down combo. There are many ways to do this, I personally prefer to use this right after a successful Nocturne as I find the downtime between Nocturne and your next action to be minimal, and immediately follow it up with a Neutralize. Of course this will depend on your skill-chain and cool downs, which I will outline later on.
Furious Dash: This skill is immensely useful, and your primary gap-closer. I always initiate a fight with this, due to the fact that when you are charging an opponent, you can initiate on your terms and puts them on the defensive. The key to using this skill is knowing the range of your skills, and timing your skills to the instant you step within that range, connecting the first hit often dictates the flow of the fight, as it forces the opponent to think about whether they use escape right off the bat, and potentially die in 1 knock-down chain later ( unless defender) or hold onto their escape and take a hit to a large portion of their health.
***IMPORTANT: Level two of this skill grants you a 10% damage reduction to the next hit you receive, PLUS IMMUNITY to the next CC you receive. Note however, these 2 effects are included in the same buff, thus the CC reduction is wasted if you are hit by a non-cc as well. I personally do not have level 2 of this skill, but when I do, it will open up a whole new bag of tricks. (Saving furious dash to use when sorcerers use ice block is one I am excited to do).
Bash: My favorite skill simply because of how underestimated it is. This skill is the second fastest skill available to berserkers and knocks-down and knocks-back the opponent. In my skill chain, this skill is key in maintaining the combo, and my favorite 1-2 punch is bash-> Move 2 steps->Nocturne. This is also another of my initiator skills, and will win you fights when the opponent is expecting a Neutralize opening.
Tornado: The strongest single skill in your arsenal (4 hits of 140%), however there are select situations where you should use this. This is because this skill ONLY knocks-down when the opponent is already flinched. If they are in normal stance, or knocked-down this skill will only do damage, and due to its long recovery time, will allow opponents to roll away.
Arma crush: Nothing too much to say, this skill is useful because it chains off the Neutralize combo and knocks-down the opponent.
Vanquish: Another amazing skill with ridiculous scaling (40% a point) and cooldown (3 seconds) and knocks-down the opponent. This skill is the key in all knock-down combos as it chains from crush and upward strike. The crush-vanquish combo is especially important, as it is 2 knock-downs in a row.
Crush-Vanquish
Crush knocks-down for approx ~2 seconds, and immediately you have a time period where you will be able to chain vanquish. It will be a waste to use 2 knockdowns in a row, so the combo I use is crush->auto->vanquish to maximize damage output. An important thing to note is that you can change direction before using vanquish.
Nocturne: The most infamous skill you have, dealing the highest single hit damage. This skill has a long animation, and is incredibly obvious, thus you only use it on knocked-down opponents. There is NO way to block this skill, even with bastion, as it is a downward striking skill.
Escape: This skill cancels all CC and provides you with a speed boost, while jumping you character backwards. Which direction you move depends on your camera angle. Knowing when and how to use this skill is very important. Most players use this to avoid a high hitting skill, however I believe the most optimal way to use this is right BEFORE the opponent uses a skill, allowing you a window to strike them during their skill animation.
Another way I like to use this skill is offensively, which catches many players off-guard, for example, allowing yourself to be frozen by sorcerers and turning the camera, escaping behind them, and opening with Neutralize.
PVP Tactics, Class specific
Berserk vs Berserk
This match-up is all about who utilizes escape and tranquility the most optimally. Essentially once either players uses escape, the next knockdown on that player will determine the match. First hit is crucial here, allowing you to force him to use escape first.
1. Pop outrage and Rush towards him, and make sure not to full engage, but rather circle around him
2. Based on what he does, gain distance and open with Neutralize, or counter with upward strike
3. If you land the first hit, start your combo, and force him to burn escape. The moment he does, pop tranquility to regain your stamina, and ROLL toward him, do not let him have a second to plan his next move. What will likely happen is that this aggression will mind-game him into doing what is wrong (attacking you) rather than play it safe and wait for escape cool-down. As soon as you see the animation of a skill, flip camera, ESCAPE behind him, open with neutralize into a knock-down chain and the match should be yours, the only way for him to get back up from this point is if you run out of stamina.
4. IF he landed the first hit on you, make you you use escape as soon as you see him start animation (likely crush) and try to land a hit on him. If unsuccessful, the best option is to wait on escape cooldown and roll often to try to land a hit. DO NOT ENGAGE AGAINST A COMPETENT BERSERKER WITHOUT ESCAPE, YOU WILL NOT LIVE.
