Best skills for berserker?

[deuceyd]

I'm trying to learn how to play berserker, whats the best skills to choose and best weapons? Also do you always aim for the head?

[Serious]

You also aim for the head as zerk ;-)
Best weapons are hemoclobber, VLAD, Zweihander and bonecrusher.
But you can use pretty much every weapon as zerk, perk is so strong you don't have to use "meta".
Your skills depend a bit on the team you play with and the map. But the best general build should be:
LLRLL

Other skills are also viable sometimes e.g.
Use skirmisher only if you need or want to kite often
Use butcher only if you trust your medic (use the first 1-2 waves to check the medics quality)
Use resistance only if you know abomination will be boss.
Massacre is quite useless compared to smash and i don't have a situation in mind where it could be better.
Spartan only if your medic is much better as your big zed killer (what's almost never the case).

There are more or less 2 main points to be a good zerk:
1. Defend your team, you are no big zed smasher you are tank. You can do pretty much everything as zerk, but it's teamgame and you should do what no perk is better in → tank
2. Learn to parry. There is no good zerk in kf2 history who can't parry.

[spearten.com]

I'd disagree with Serious on the matter of Spartan only.

If you pair it with dreadnought, it's 100 free health every time zed time is triggered, plus all enemies near you (radius is quite large) go completely still, which your headshot buddies will thank you greatly for!

Wanna help those guys and other big zed killers even more? Static Strikers secondary fire will emp them, which disables scrake rage temporarily and can prolong a fleshpound's calm period a bit. But let your team get the first shot on them first, and then assist with this method. Remember to block for your team! Your are quite literally the only tank in the game unless you count medic, but I don't believe it to be logical for medics to be on the front lines.

Of course, you're free to use whatever you'd like. I think the only meh thing about the perk rn is Massacre, it just isn't really needed because when you level it up the perk will have sufficient damage with its weapons to kill small zeds quickly. Smash is great for literally all weapons, aim for the head and you can kill every non-large zed in 1 hit with certain weapons. Mostly blunt weapons.

Berserk, despite what some low-skill players may say, is in a great state and offers unique ways to play it based on your skill choices.

Do you take the quick and deadly role with Skirmisher, or the Brickhouse protector for your team? It depends on how you all are playing and where you hold up. Some popular areas may not have good spots for you to funnel zeds so Skirmisher may work better, depends on the map.

Pretty much all weapons are good on zerk, at least the not HRG ones. But I think all HRG is pointless filler content that makes the game worse by their inclusion. The katana though is just a very slightly better crovel, but not significant enough to need. You can pretty much go past wave 3/10 with just a crovel and then get a tier 3.

[Gunthak]

Decide if you prefer the strike and run style, or the stay in the thick of sh!t tank style, and perk accordingly. Both can support a competent ranged dmg secondary weap. Obviously you might base the overall decision on whether the team has an active healer or not.

The most useful/durable tank will have zero movement speed bonus, and zero per-kill HP regen, but ample damage to finish, and zedtime healing to stay in the thick of the sh!t. Your teamplay hook is effective body blocking, and using zedtime to protect or heal teammates while you auto-heal. You will master the timing on your zedtime 'fear' effect to benefit yourself and teammates.

The most useful strike/run zerk will be 'lite tank' - softer - but have constant movement speed, possibly ranged per-kill regen, likely insane zed time re-positioning speed via Spartan. Teamplay, you're using zedtime for strategic body block, jumping parries, and moving right up in a zed's face for point blank headshot spam (VLAD/Tesla especially).

Both should generally focus on Smash for best case clutch damage and TTK thresholds.

There's a vaguely vicious Katana+3 or Hemoclobber +2 Massacre build, but you must be all-in on managing swing spam and stagger spam, reading zed stagger. Your mouse will suffer, your foes will suffer worse. Master attack/block interrupt effects with Massacre, exploiting the faster swing completion/re-swing it provides.

Ultimately Smash is simply too clutch to ignore, as the Headshot bonus applies to ranged zerk weapons, and in a pinch, the TTK is irresistible there. But there's an edge case Massacre build or two that can deliver if you're good with hyper activity.

No matter the zerk playstyle, you will always be Parry. Often you will intentionally not go for a kill, to fish for a parry off any zed, to buff yourself and back off. You will chain Parry. That risk vs. reward is inherent to a well-oiled zerk killing machine and hitting TTK thresholds, whether beefy and slow or lightweight and fast, regen per kill or none, heavy point blank or vicious ranged spike damage, or any combo in between.

Plan your weapon loadout around build type and play style. It will be self-evident what you need.

[Gunthak]

ps: Crouch tanking is a thing. It's pretty respectful for precision teammates, and it's the least possible knockback distance from hits/parries.

If doubtful (or want some practice), I invite you to join a server with Friendly Fire and some sharpshooters, and compare what it's like to tank standing or crouching. ;)

You can land head hit melee from a point blank crouch tank, btw.
+Remember to re-crouch after contact that resets your posture.

[Aya]

Personally, I think this is the best skill setup:

Skirmisher
Vampire
Parry
Smash
Berserker Rage

While Berserker is a melee class, the best way to play Berserker is to juggle between melee and ranged weapons, meaning you'll need to know when to close in and strike with your melee, when to withdraw and fight from a distance, and when to reload.

Skirmisher helps a huge ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with the withdrawing part, and ranged weapons such as the VLAD and especially the Teslalauncher are capable of healing the Berserker so if you're taking a lot of damage, do not be afraid to switch to your ranged Berserker weapons for a quick health boost

Parry is just straight up better since your damage resistance would be bumped up to 40% for 8 seconds, which is much better than a constant 25% resistance, though this doesn't give the Berserker much license to ignore their ranged arsenal, just enough tankiness to survive large zed attacks and the occasional trash mob that's already been thinned out by ranged weapon usage.

There is no reason to pick Massacre over Smash since the 5% attack speed boost is basically nonexistent, and you can get a similar effect with light attacks by consistently landing headshots. Your heavy swings will often decide the outcome with large zed encounters.

Honestly, I think the choice between Spartan and Berserker Rage is a matter of preference at this point, though i find that there's more utility to be had with instantly regenerating my health, since I can't really make Spartan worth it more often than not

[Gunthak]

Originally posted by Aya:

Honestly, I think the choice between Spartan and Berserker Rage is a matter of preference at this point, though i find that there's more utility to be had with instantly regenerating my health, since I can't really make Spartan worth it more often than not

If hanging out near team, Spartan gets you the mint body blocking, multiple body block calcs, and re-positioning, plus total self-preservation death save (like avoiding a final combo hit's animation cycle, etc.), and the quasi-real time reload with zed weaps,

-- but Rage is the better teamplay option from wave 2-3 onward if you're staying near teammates, or without a dedicated healer.

You can really occupy a protect tank role, and use your self-heal zedtime for crunchy swarm body blocking (form big, blocked packs for Demos and FBs to decimate, etc.), and a perfect time to switch to a med weap and patch up injured teammates. You can deliberately take hits/restore enough HPs in zedtime to flip around and heal up some damaged teammates.

All boils down to preference. I used to lean into Spartan. Now I'm Rage - the fear/stun is too damn useful. You can get into a flow of cluster fears/stuns and it's verrrry useful for some perks.
Quick example: A Survivalist blasting the Arc Generator's brutal alt-fire balls into zeds that are being Zerker Rage 'feared' - gimping, running/returning - crowds of zeds getting devastated by multi-multi hit bonuses. Any long penetration stuff too.

Almost as good as a +Damage buff for team.

[deuceyd]

Even with 200hp how do you play a tank role on HOE? I tried berserker on hard and it was easy just stand still and swing at heads but higher than that its tough.

[Serious]

tank at HoE is quite easy. All you need to do is, check for big ones, go between this big one and nearest players and kneel prepared to parry.
Check if its attacked by other players and how. DONT RAGE IT YOURSELF just because you think you can tank it. Sure you can, but it take much longer and more teammember are involved which could lead to issues at other lanes.
The only "dangerous" ZED to you as zerk with dreadnaught are husk. But all other perks are more effective against them anyway so it's quite useless to waste your time, health and position to priorize husk.

[Gunthak]

Originally posted by Serious:

The only "dangerous" ZED to you as zerk with dreadnaught are husk. But all other perks are more effective against them anyway so it's quite useless to waste your time, health and position to prioritize husk.

I don't zerk Teslalauncher much anymore - I like it, but the ammo upkeep and upgrade arc (Tesla+1 hits some real good Butcher+Smash kill thresholds) is very expensive to manage early on. You can transition to other cheaper/good loadouts faster.

Tesla gets a lot of 'meh' opinions, but the projectile type is quite useful for bouncing out of melee to trim the herd around large targets. Melts Bloats and crawlers, etc.

Importantly, if any zerk is troubled by Husks and EDARs, the Tesla absolutely f-ing shreds them, quickly and efficiently. They are trivial non-risks to a zerk with a Tesla.

(so if you know a Matriarch is coming up as boss, give yourself a Tesla for the fight).

[Serious]

Tesla and Bonecrusher is the best for matriarch and also a save option for every boss ;-)
With a good medic the other 4 player can hide and the bosses are still walkingsimulators

[Dr Big Buttcheeks]

First and foremost you must not lurk on the steam forums seeking advice. See, being a good Berserker isn't a learned ability but something you're born with. Similar to the concentrations of melanin in ones skin - you're either bad or good. Capeesh?