Berserker vs Defense tali farming and utility

darthdeus

Journeyman
I've been torn between defense and berserk, and every time I think I've made my decision I see something that changes my mind, so I'd like some input on this. I've asked around, but mostly people say to pick "whichever role I prefer". But that's a silly thing to say, since I don't know how it'd feel once I have invested into relics and stuff.

For example, most people say that zerk does insane damage in champs, but yesterday when I was doing two champs, I couldn't really do much dmg unless I chose to tank the mobs myself. There were situations in which a tamer was nicely tanking things so that I could just hit everything around and get points, but it feels most of the time the mobs would aggro on me. If I was a zerker, how would I do this naked?

Would it make sense to use a shield with a berserk? I'm parrying about 50% of hits from mobs with just 60% parrying.

Also a related question, having a defense tali would force me to wear a lot more expensive gear (armor) than the berserk, but on the other hand I could be dying much less ... though it doesn't help against PKs. On the other hand, defense is much cheaper to get relics for, so maybe it pays for itself faster?

And lastly, do you actually farm with defense/zerk, or just use them for champs/rdas? It seems that running around in invul gear with defense might be more expensive than not farimng at all, due to PKs.
 
Well ok I don't know where to start so this will be all over the place.

Berserker will do more damage and usually be better for events for higher scores. A lot of people take defense for PvP because that way while running through dungeons if a monster hits them the damage will be low.

About cost of suits, they should both have costly suits if you are efficiently leveling them. The defense will want full invul with heater to keep exp at max or somewhere around there. This is good enough and you dont usually need to go whole-hog into making the armor slayer, but you could. For zerker I suggest a full set of slayer armor, just get the newbie leather chest and gloves and put slayer on those, they wont drop when you die. For the other slots, you can just grab store bought leather armor and imbue it with slayer. Now your armor with a full set will be 12AR, that means 12% less exp gained, but since you will take 50% less damage and then even less with a swampy, you dont have to joust as much and thus kill way faster and faster kills means more exp in less time. My zerker just fights dragons toe to toe and never runs to heal unless something links on and I am fighting more than 1.

As for hunting I do drakes and dragons and such reptile slayer types on zerker and I do ogre lords and noncaster types on my defense guy.

I do think the zerker is better for PmM only character, but I am very biased and most people are so you really do have to decide for yourself. Eppy said he removed all aggro related exp requirements from all the talismans so you can hunt with friends now. Go out with a tamer friend and let their pet tank and you just stab the mobs in the back of the head. You get easy exp and he gets faster kills.

Edit: Just want to add I probably lost 9 or 10 full reptile slayer suits leveling my zerker but I made more than that in gold. The gold I made was just a bonus because I was really out there for the exp. Everytime you drop a stack of 10k gold at the bank just think of it as you being paid to level your talisman.
 

darthdeus

Journeyman
Thanks for an exhaustive answer! Though it raised a lot of questions for me.

Having looked over the wiki page for talis, there's only an XP gain penalty, right? So it could still make sense to have a shield with a zerker with parrying and use that on harder mobs? Or would I just be running around with 2h weapons and pick something else instead of parrying?

For zerker I suggest a full set of slayer armor, just get the newbie leather chest and gloves and put slayer on those, they wont drop when you die.

Can these be bought? I'm already at my char limit and don't really want to delete 7x complete char to get newbied items :(

For the other slots, you can just grab store bought leather armor and imbue it with slayer

Isn't imbuing disabled on this server? Or is that something else? I haven't seen any slayer armor on a vendor yet.

and then even less with a swampy

Huh, is that the only mount that reduces damage? How much does it reduce?

Sorry for asking so many questions, but I'm finding it difficult to find any of this info on the wikis or forums.
 

Ajaxe

Novice
Project already gave a great summary, but I'll add on a few things. First, I really only have one character, so I'm not bringing in a ton of gold yet. However, I already have both the talismans.

I did like the Zerker talisman for damage, however, I was having to joust mobs a ton to just stay alive which severely hampered me being able to fight harder mobs. Also, this slowed down my gold rate by a decent amount. I was also using parry, which I can see being awesome down the road for Zerker, but not right now.

Yes, the armor for the defensive meta is more expensive, but if you do some looking around, you'll find invuln plate pieces between 1-2k. I've already bought 5 full suits at about 15k per suit. 75k is nothing when you co spider the next part.

With the invuln armor I've absolutely been able to farm faster, die less, and make skill gains on the talisman significantly faster. With my Zerker I was always gaining at 88%, but with my defensive talisman I'm always gaining at 100%. Repair deeds are cheap, so I keep a handful in the bank at all times. When I go drop loot, I repair and head back out.

The main reason I switched from Zerker to defensive meta was simply the relics and the skills. When a double strike relic is approximately 5m, I can get at least two of the defensive relics for that cost and all 4 defensive relics for the cost of 2 of the Zerker relics. (This is of course assuming you have to buy them.) Which, again, this is the only char I have, so I'm not pulling in tons of cash.

Second is the skills part of the Zerker relic. To make the most benefit out of the phase shift and infectious wounds relic, you really want to have hiding/stealth and poisoning. It's not that they don't sound awesome, but I'm not ready to change that around until I do it all at once.

So for me, leveling defense has been faster, will be cheaper, and I can tank harder mobs.

End wall of text.
 

Shortbus

Grandmaster
Thanks for an exhaustive answer! Though it raised a lot of questions for me.

Having looked over the wiki page for talis, there's only an XP gain penalty, right? So it could still make sense to have a shield with a zerker with parrying and use that on harder mobs? Or would I just be running around with 2h weapons and pick something else instead of parrying?



Can these be bought? I'm already at my char limit and don't really want to delete 7x complete char to get newbied items :(



Isn't imbuing disabled on this server? Or is that something else? I haven't seen any slayer armor on a vendor yet.



Huh, is that the only mount that reduces damage? How much does it reduce?

Sorry for asking so many questions, but I'm finding it difficult to find any of this info on the wikis or forums.

Swampy with exceptional Valorite barding is 20% damage reduction. Will cost about 500k or so.

Imbuing is allowed for a price. Finding the newbie armor is the fun part.
 
Here I made a Zerker fight video for you.

I want to add first that I am not a pro and I usually don't level my talisman on the weekends because tons of PKs.

Also I mention I made the weapon in the video, I added an annotation to correct that this particular weapon I bought at a vendor, but I was assuming I had one on that I made since I do craft my own also.

 

Young Star

Grandmaster
You are right that you do not need to keep low AR to get the benefits during something like a Champ spawn. I suit up like normal whenever I am not leveling the talisman. For champs with a zerker it is important to be there at lvl 1 if you want to get near top score. Level 4 your score rate will tank but you should be ahead of most tamers.

With a slayer axe I usually go nuts and hit everything in reach, 1-2 shoting most of the early spawn. Get an attack closest grey macro and just keep mashing it every swing or put it on a loop.
 

Young Star

Grandmaster
Here I made a Zerker fight video for you.

I want to add first that I am not a pro and I usually don't level my talisman on the weekends because tons of PKs.

Also I mention I made the weapon in the video, I added an annotation to correct that this particular weapon I bought at a vendor, but I was assuming I had one on that I made since I do craft my own also.

Pretty brave of you to bring a slayer suit into destard. I almost never bring mine into dungeons solo.

When it comes to leveling you need to find a balance between the difficulty of monsters and the rate you can keep swinging at something.
 

Fattson

Grandmaster
Here I made a Zerker fight video for you.

I want to add first that I am not a pro and I usually don't level my talisman on the weekends because tons of PKs.

Also I mention I made the weapon in the video, I added an annotation to correct that this particular weapon I bought at a vendor, but I was assuming I had one on that I made since I do craft my own also.


@Wizx13 He went to slayerville!

I didn't wear any ar until my current level, which is level 8. Nor did I use agil or str pots. I kept it pretty basic and leveled quickly with my one relic, which is double strike.
 

darthdeus

Journeyman
I didn't wear any ar until my current level, which is level 8. Nor did I use agil or str pots. I kept it pretty basic and leveled quickly with my one relic, which is double strike.

How did you manage to farm up for the double strike if I may ask? :)
 
Pretty brave of you to bring a slayer suit into destard. I almost never bring mine into dungeons solo.

When it comes to leveling you need to find a balance between the difficulty of monsters and the rate you can keep swinging at something.

I keep reflect up and hit my recall macro anytime I see any red enter the screen at all. Sometimes they can get to me in time to interupt it but I can just run. Not a lot of PK teams rolling through Destard when I play, sometimes solo PKs and most cannot kill me through AIDs and Pots and I just escape. I do die on occassion like once per two weeks or so (although it has been over a month as of now), you make more gold than you lose even bringing the slayer.

He didn't. If you participate in the activities in the game that drop relics you have a shot at getting one that you can use or sell for one you do want.
A shot means you have to be a lucky person. I have done all my talismans in Destard and turned in hundreds of crystals to the alter and never got anything even when I am the top contributor.
 

Young Star

Grandmaster
Crystals are just one option and it is rare that one is given at all for the dungeon bosses. There are multiple activities that give a chance to get a relic. Champs, RDAs, dungeon boss crystals, arch demon, etc.
 

darthdeus

Journeyman
Thanks for the overall suggestions guys, I ended up getting both of the talismans, and probably just see which one is more fun to level :)
 

tankian

Grandmaster
I've been torn between defense and berserk, and every time I think I've made my decision I see something that changes my mind, so I'd like some input on this. I've asked around, but mostly people say to pick "whichever role I prefer". But that's a silly thing to say, since I don't know how it'd feel once I have invested into relics and stuff.

For example, most people say that zerk does insane damage in champs, but yesterday when I was doing two champs, I couldn't really do much dmg unless I chose to tank the mobs myself. There were situations in which a tamer was nicely tanking things so that I could just hit everything around and get points, but it feels most of the time the mobs would aggro on me. If I was a zerker, how would I do this naked?

Would it make sense to use a shield with a berserk? I'm parrying about 50% of hits from mobs with just 60% parrying.

Also a related question, having a defense tali would force me to wear a lot more expensive gear (armor) than the berserk, but on the other hand I could be dying much less ... though it doesn't help against PKs. On the other hand, defense is much cheaper to get relics for, so maybe it pays for itself faster?

And lastly, do you actually farm with defense/zerk, or just use them for champs/rdas? It seems that running around in invul gear with defense might be more expensive than not farimng at all, due to PKs.
This is exactly what I've been trying decide thanks for asking the question for me. I was considering going tank myself but just can't decide
 

tankian

Grandmaster
Anyone have a video of a meta tank. I would love to see it in action killing a dragon in comparison to a zerker with comparable weapon
 
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