Last week we talked about the upcoming Demo and Commando perk changes. Today I want to cover another revised perk before we talk about the Sharpshooter. Enter the Berserker:
The refined Berserker tree has players choose between higher survivability with less damage output or trading that for faster, more damaging attacks and movement speed. This gives the player a chance to focus on their Berserker on being a Tank or high DPS role. The perk passives are now increased melee damage, night vision and the ability to resist clot grabs. As per usual, these values are not final and are subject to change before release.
Level 5:
Dreadnaught - Increased health by 50%
Skirmisher - Move faster, sprint faster, regenerate health every second
Level 10:
Vampire - Heal yourself 4 points of health for every zed you kill with a Berserker weapon, also attack 15% faster with Berserker weapons
Butcher - Attack 20% faster and do 25% more damage with Berserker weapons
Level 15:
Resistance - Gain 20% resistance to all damage, gain an extra 20% resistance to poison and sonic damage
Parry - Parrying an attack will increase melee attack speed by 5% and damage by 35% for 10 seconds
Level 20:
Smash - Hard attacks do 50% more damage, plus an extra 25% more damage on headshots, which have 200% more stumble power
Massacre - Light attacks do 20% more damage and are 5% faster
Level 25:
Spartan - Attack in near real time and gain 25% of your total health
Rage - Move and attack in real time
Joining the game soon is the much anticipated Sharpshooter perk. Herald of headshots, the sharpshooter will focus on single shot, scoped, high damage weapons (not necessarily all three at once!). The sharpshooter tree will give players the choice between supporting their team by stunning/disabling the medium to big zeds or by focusing on well placed, high damage shots to vulnerable zones. The perk passives are Headshot damage increase, recoil reduction and weapon switch speed. And as always this may be revised before the final release.
Level 5:
Sniper - Inflict 25% more damage while stationary with sharpshooter weapons
Marksman - Shoot 25% faster and move 10% faster with sharpshooter weapons
Level 10:
Stability - Inflict 30% more damage while crouched
Ballistic Shock - Stun power increased by 100%
Level 15:
Rack ‘em Up - Each consecutive headshot increases your damage by 5% up to 75%
Combat Ready - Reload your weapons faster
Level 20:
Deadeye - Reduce recoil by 10% and increase headshot damage by 10% when aiming
Always Prepared - Get 25% more ammo for sharpshooter weapons and grenades
Level 25:
Assassin - Headshot will knock down any Zed
Ranger - Headshots will stun any zed
But wait, there’s more! We’ve been reworking the Hans fight and you may want to get the message out that his engagement strategy will need to change (Don’t stop firing when the shield comes up!).
When Hans goes into his healing phase, he brings up his shield and will now start being more evasive before coming in to make his grab. During this phase, his shield can now be broken, which can interrupt his heal or prevent him from healing altogether. So stick together and stay focused!
We plan to have more on specifics of the incapacitation and resistance changes next week along with another surprise (if all goes well!) but we did want to get the general knowledge out there. With the upcoming changes certain weapon types do better or worse against different Zeds. The goal here is that all perks can still fight all zeds they run against, but some they are more efficient against. The general outline is as follows:
Fire Weapons: Great against bloats. Good against Clot variants, Stalkers and Crawlers. Bad against Gorefasts, Husks, Sirens, Scrakes and Fleshpounds. Higher ability to panic more zeds more often
SMG’s: Great against Clot variants, and Stalkers. Good against Crawlers. Worse against Gorefasts, Husks, Sirens, Scrakes and Fleshpounds, bad against Bloats. High Flinch/hit effect chance to keep enemies from moving in
Assault Rifles: Great against cysts, crawlers and stalkers. Good against Alphas, Slashers and Gorefasts. Worse against Sirens, Husks, Scrakes, and Fleshpounds. Bad against bloats. Higher Stumble power to keep Zeds from charging.
Shotguns: Great against Gorefast. Good against Clot variants, Crawlers, Sirens, Husks, Scrakes and Fleshpounds. Bad against Stalkers and Bloats. Higher Stumble power to keep Zeds from charging.
Handguns: Good against Clot variants, Gorefasts, Crawlers, Scrakes and Fleshpounds. Bad against Bloats, SIrens and Husks. High Stumble and Knockdown power.
Melee Weapons (slashing and blunt): Good against Stalkers. Worse against Clot variants, Gorefasts, Crawlers, Sirens, Husks, and Scrakes. Bad against Bloats. High flinch/hit effect power.
Microwave: Great Gorefasts, Bloats, Sirens, Husks, Scrakes and Fleshpounds. Bad against Clot variants, Crawlers, and Stalkers.
Explosive Weapons: Great against Clot variants, Gorefasts, Crawlers, Husks and Fleshpounds. Bad against Stalkers, Bloats and Sirens. Higher Knockdown and Knockback power.
Piercing: Great against Clot variants, Crawlers, Stalkers and Scrakes. Worse against Sirens, Husks, and Fleshpounds. Bad against Bloats. Higher Knockdown and Stun power.
Toxic: Great against Stalkers, Good against Cysts, Alphas, Gorefasts, Crawler, Sirens and Scrakes. Worse against Fleshpounds. Bad against Bloats and Husks. High Panic power.
Til next week!