Additional, a little info about Brawler that is often forgotten:
Bash and melee attacks deal 50% more damage
And compared to Armor Break, what I think is more a support ability that mostly doesn’t help the Berserker but his buddies, it would be a direct buff for himself.
Edit, to make it more complete.
These two classes are both meant to go close and personal, the Heavy with its inaccurate heavy weapon and high armor and the Berserker with melee and some skills to also get somehow tanky.
In theory a dual classed Heavy / Berserker is probably the most tanky and also very flexible close quarter build in the game:
heavy armor + close quarter evade + ingore pain = Tank
Jump Jet = mobility
Pistols, heavy guns, grenade launcher, mounted weapons, melee weapons = just wow
Rage Burst or Adrenaline Rush = different possibilites to pump up its damage output up to nowhere.
Boom Blast = nothing more to say, but doesn’t fit the close quarter specialist role
But, IMO, some base skills are not on the right class …
I will try this in my next run, sounds really strong
Thats a good point.
But the berserker has to be close enough on his own and not to rely on multiclassing. Maybe a jump skill (1/3 range from jet jump) for 1AP
And: Something needs to be done about this 1AP torso. Either a reinforced counterweight as a permanent disadvantage or throw out this 1AP melee skill.
1/3 is not much, roughly 7 tiles, but could of course help a bit. But where? Or as a base perk?
I would also prefer to change Bloodlust because I think this is a stupid skill. Receiving buffs on speed and damage when wounded? Also it is easily abusable. I would make this one also more a tank skill and so that any abuse by self damaging is not worth it. Or completely away from received damage in direction to damage that he has dealt to enemies.
Overall, yes, I would exchange Armor Break and Brawler.
The problem with Armor Break is that it’s uniquely unsuited for melee combat, because you can’t choose which body part to hit and because melee weapons have such a high damage per hit that once you can hit something with melee you typically don’t have to worry about armor.
However, I think it would be absolutely fantastic for Heavy, because it works really well with all of its weapons.
One idea I heard was give QA to Assault, replacing Dash, give Dash to Berserker to replace Armor Break, make extreme focus give free Overwatch, instead of reducing cost by 1 AP.
(Not sure what would QA be replaced with, maybe in that scenario with Armor Break)
Imo, QA is a very specific skill that should be given to all classes. But if alone, then I prefer Bers. This class makes use of good Initiative with poor Precision.
Melee weapons are high damage per hit, they don’t benefit that much from armor piercing. But in addition to that you can’t target specific body parts with melee, so what’s the point of being able to shred/pierce armor?
This is a question for Devs.
I can only add that this skill will help with both the Hammer and the Pistol. But giving the magic of breaking armor at a distance is nonsense.
Well, magic or meta is the by-product of certain design decisions. When it comes to character progression, the idea is too allow many different combinations with a fairly limited number of elements. This means that all skills are meant to be useful for all classes.
It would be easy to make Berserker into a melee class, for example restricting Bloodlust and Adrenaline Rush to melee weapons, but a decision was made to avoid that: to make Bloodlust and Adrenaline Rush useful for all classes.
Now, I think it’s a very interesting discussion whether such approach is worth it or not (and it has been ongoing since release and before that).
The pros is that we have many different combinations, and even after a long time players come up with new viable builds with a fairly limited number of skills and stats. The cons is that it creates balance issues and that the magic/meta is not realistic and not intuitive.
How likely are the devs to review this design choice at this point? Idk. Can it be somewhat modulated to keep it open and less meta/magic? Perhaps, but the replacement has to be something open, i.e. as useful as possible regardless of class.
It would be more interesting for me to try the gameplay where such a Bers will be in a multiclass with Assault. AR and Grenade, Sword and Pistol. Imo, only more options for application. Tactics are born in Limits.
When Strength ceases to matter, then Mastery is born.
I see where you are looking (what you want). The problem is that it cannot be in the same cauldron with Tactics. (To this day, Other Devs have always built rules/ limits and it worked.)
If it’s within the Rookie / Veteran boundaries, I Agree.
Building broken rules is common. But to create a Rule with “internal and external” Harmony, Development equal to Genius.