Buff HB?

I like Active Zerk as a concept, I think it could use some QoL refinements though

Zerk Wish-list:

• Re-cast Zerk to toggle off (instead of right clicking the icon); maybe even refund some of the duration
• Remove the animation time, and allow Zerk to be cast even if you're already in middle of an attack. ML has the technology, we added it to Shadow Stars
• Do something about the pot situation. DK needs 3 buttons just for HP pots, in a game where other classes basically have 3 buttons total

 

I cannot say I share this sentiment, at least not in the context of the game as a whole. It's a change that was made with class fantasy first, feasibility second and dk wasn't given the tools needed to enable such a style. For every other class in the game, health is a binary resource where the question of "will survive/"wont survive" the next attack or two is solved by simply washing to a threshold and potting to full in the worst case (and almost always done by pet, not even the player!). This allows every other class, including the other warriors, to maximize their output by more or less holding dpm button and reacting to the few attacks that actually matter: dps/seds/drs.

How does the dk maximize its output? By being under 3k hp in addition to everything else (or the 30 seconds of active zerk which we agree is jank in practice). Compared to the pre-scaling zerk%, a dk could rest easier knowing they only had to keep their hp at or below 16.5k for a 55% zerk. While we can say that technically hasnt changed under scaling zerk, the player mentality inevitably shifts to one of needing to do better by playing at the lowest hp. Otherwise the 16.5k dk will feel like theyre leaving 10% of their dmg on the table. The closest we have to this design is sairs attempting to maximize boat time by mitigating the boat damage they take. But they actually have tools to do this by attacking from long range, having an actual avoid score, or quickly dismounting and remounting in anticipation of a big attack. And even then, the sair's penalty for greed is rarely death.

Against a boss like zak I can see the dk kit working. Stationary boss, combined with essentially one weak+telegraphed attack to react to makes it fairly trivial to max zerk, and it probably feels good too. But the reality is that doesn't translate in general as many fights boss have:

• Mobile bosses or somewhat frequent repositioning
• More things to react to- dp/dr/sed/status spam (most classes deal with these first two but that's kind of the extent of what they need to do)
• More attacks at different damage values. You may have to be ready for both a 3k and 8k attack, for random example.
• Variation in damage ranges. That 8k attack might actually high roll to almost 9k. Hope you prepared accordingly.
• Attacks which cannot be reasonably reacted to. If auf wants to gen, you can't prepare and just have to just take it.

Many of these are in addition to the requirements to play other classes, and many bosses just dont allow for sufficiently low hp play. Additonally, the best classes in this game like nl/bucc/archers have kits allowing them to generally find success in almost any content/boss design, rather than having a small niche of content. Essentially, while the dk kit can work for targeted content like zak, they lack the tools to effectively control their hp in general (roar/sacrifice/walking into enemies), and then instead of increasing their effective durability, reduced it by dangling the carrot-on-a-stick with scaling zerk, creating the higher-risk low-reward class we know today.

The scaling % up to the standard zerk value is nice, but it should have stopped there. Balance Team has shown they do not have the tools and/or inspiration to design a solution capable of incorporating scaling zerk in the wider game. At least not without making luk dk pop off even harder than it does.

 

mhmm mhmm! you make some good points pippy. i agree. i also like tarnished's ideas sounds like a good QoL update