Berserk... extra hate tool?

[Loial]

/em affixes a bull's eye target.
/em prepares for the worst. =P

Hear me out first.

I became intrigued when I realized after much use that Defender appears to have a "slight" Provoke effect to it. I've found myself using it after Flash and Blink/Stoneskin drop off because it appears to cut down the severity of the Sickle Slashes from the Bark Spiders.

I've also been using Red Lotus Blade for the 150ish dmg it sometimes does against the Spiders there. 150dmg can fill in for a Sentinel or Shield Bash if they aren't up and I'm careful about my MP...

But with defender up, it drops the damage down... So I decided one day to Berserk (with Defender up) and then use RLB. In case you haven't checked your Equipment Screen if you use Berserk and Defender, they balance each other out. However, both "buffs" stay active. I know, the difference in damage is minimal, but every little bit helps right?

I came across an interesting phenomena the other night... The DRK had triple stacked Berserk, Last Resort and Soul Eater and the mob turned to him. This is the important part... at this point, he had NOT hit the mob, nor had the mob hit him, and I hadn't hit it either. So, I think it is safe to say that the mob turned and he had more hate, yet the DRKs hate had NOT dropped from receiving dmg...

I toss up Berserk for RLB and the mob turns to me. Very intrigued I was. With more testing (which is VERY hard to confirm) I keep seeing that Berserk has some sort of built in Provoke. The "strength" of it is not nearly as potent as Provoke itself, but there does appear to be some hate component involved.

Just to prevent any "PLD shouldn't use Berserk" talk... I put up Berserk, then remove it after a couple seconds, so the amount of time my defense is lowered (which is balanced out from defender anyway) is very short.

Anyone else seen this?

Oh, and needless to say my group wasn't aware that I was removing Berserk... so they thought I was nuts till I told them what I was trying

[greysenn]

Yes, Berserk pulls hate just activating it. (assuming you're on their list in the first place). It's minimal, but it's there.

It used to do about an arrows damage worth of hate for me, but the amount of hate it pulls seems to have gone down with me leveling, leading me to believe it is a small, but fixed amount.

[Nanila]

Higher you get, the less of a draw it'll bring to you. If you have it up and want to pop it on, then take it off, go for it. Every bit helps. But it won't help you that much when people are doing SC's in the thousands ^^.

I know what you mean though. When I was leveling my ranger, just putting on Sharpshot and barrage was enough to get hate onto me, and I have yet to even fire the barrage yet. Most abilities have hate to them , which is why we like to cycle through our sheild bash and Sent. They have a good aggro spike to them, which is good to get aggro back onto us, or keep it on us.

[Artonis]

sounds snazzy!
(Note. I am not spamming Galka to be the be all of the end all, though it is the second thread I am praising them lol)

Even awesomer for Galka, being higher HP and base VIT than other PLD, even if we get hit on the few seconds we have it up (taking extra time to not turn off other buffs like refresh or ballad), we still have a load of extra HP that a taru PLD doing the same thing doesn't.

Counterpoint, Taru PLD would have more than enough MP to cure themselves after getting the lower defense hit, and then some, AND gain more agro from healing themselves after the berserk than a Galka would by just using berserk.

So each would have their own place.

[Ednoon]

i dont think str add any extra dmg for RLB but your int adds more dmg to it.

[Loial]

i dont think str add any extra dmg for RLB but your int adds more dmg to it.

My experience could simply be based on the pseudo-random number generator. I was a difference on average of 20 damage with Berserk on to negate the Attack-.

But it won't help you that much when people are doing SC's in the thousands ^^.

I completely agree, but again, every little bit helps. You got an ability to tack on a little more hate, might as well go use it

[Asherek]

I use Berserk as another tool to grab aggro. I activate it then instantly (or as fast as I can) cancel it. It's risky, but I only use this tool when I'm desperate to regain aggro and I need every bit of help I can get.

Occasionally, if we're having fun in the PT and I'm fairly confident that we're doing well, I'll hit Berserk before I unleash a weapon skill then quickly cancel it afterwards. However I don't do this very often.