FrogComposband - Berserker Questions

[GrimaTheBold]

I'm playing my first Berserker and holy cow are they powerful. I'm CL 34 and have 1,050 HP and do 900 points damage per round (well over 1000 against undead and giants, so looking forward to Old Watchtower). I knew they'd be powerful, but right now it feels like a grown man playing basketball with a toddler. Of course pride cometh before the fall...

I'm playing a Human (for the quick level gains), Chaotic, and in coffee-break mode.

Anyway my question: is there any way for this class to ever get Illumination or Enlightenment? Is there something I'm missing or will you go the entire game without ever having these? I thought I was being clever taking Peerless Tracker at CL20, not realizing I'd have a 95% fail rate. Does this ever get better?

Also, are missile weapons basically not used by Berserkers? Is the bow slot just used as a stat-stick?

[ster]

Peerless tracker is wis based, zerks have -20 to wis, you do the math. I don't think there's an easy way for them to map levels but you can drink potions of enlightenment. Wood elf berserker would be able to use nature awareness to map things but that also needs wis. No, you can't use a shooter, you'll never have any reasonable chance to hit with it.

[GrimaTheBold]

Ah, so me using one of my stat gains on Wisdom hoping to improve Peerless Tracker was a waste. No way I'll ever overcome -20.

So I wasted at least one stat gain, and taking Peerless Tracker was a waste as well - with no ranged attacks, I dearly wish I had chosen Fleet of Foot. And come to think of it, Hermes would be a good race pair, again to close that ground faster.

Oh well, my next one will be more optimized.

[GrimaTheBold]

Replying further to myself - thinking about this more, I'm thinking that speed (and movement speed) are probably the most important attributes by far for a Berserker to pursue. With no range attacks, and no ability to confuse, being able to quickly close ground to dispatch a summoner seems incredibly important.

And I'm going to guess that out of control summoning is the number one cause of death of Berserkers. Sand Pits quest - Cthonians - will be an interesting test. Edit: welp, for the first time I've seen in a Coffee-Break game, no Sand Pits quest, looks like I got Pits of Despair as a substitute. I'm going to guess that's in recognition of how tough summoners would be for a Berserker.

[Sideways]

It's basically just a coin flip which of those you get, berserker or not and coffee-break or not (unlike DQ2 which is only random in normal mode).

Coffee-break is probably an advantage for berserkers, simply because the game is faster so there are fewer opportunities to get badly surrounded by summons. Still plenty of time for things to go very wrong, though

[Thraalbee]

Be careful with chests armed with summoning runes! At deeper levels (and quests) those can be quite deadly.

[GrimaTheBold]

Be careful with chests armed with summoning runes! At deeper levels (and quests) those can be quite deadly.

Yep, one of my biggest battles so far was the summons from the Old Watchtower chest. It would have killed any prior character I've played, but my Berserker powered through it. There were multiple elemental uniques.