Lancer NPC Overview - Berserker

 

Art by Retrograde Minis

Target

Berserker - Striker
A fragile, frantic melee striker that hits hard but dies faster.

Range 

Short

Threat 

Low/Medium

Complexity 

Low

Overview 

The Berserker's a hot mess, which is appropriate for what it's named and styled after. To summarize most of my thoughts, they are simultaneously one of the most dangerous and most easily dealt with Striker in the game. If you either cannot or don't know how to handle them and they're allowed to sit on a target while you shoot them, they're a terrible force to be reckoned with and probably do the most damage out of any Striker in the game. But if you do know how to deal with them, which is fairly trivial, they're almost entirely toothless. While still useful for a myriad of reasons, against a competent group of players you might find yourself struggling to use them effectively. Let's take a deeper look.

On paper, Berserkers are fairly tough with a respectable HP and point of armor. Maybe a bit low, but they have a feature that grants them resistance to all damage! And they do have a weakness in their Systems and Engineering, while having a pretty pathetic E-Defense and a bad Heat Cap. This in theory means they're resistant to damage but weak to tech attacks or saves targeting their Systems or Engineering, which often go hand in hand. In practice? They're kinda weak against everything.

Due to the mixture of their poor E-Defense, a resistance that relies on not having any Conditions, the existence of Fragment Signal as a basic invade option for all Players, their reliance on using non-standard Movement such as Boost and their Avalanche Charge, and the fact they're melee it turns into a perfect storm of making the Berserker's counter something almost every player has available. And as long as they have a reasonable Sensors, can easily utilize it against a Berserker before it can use many of its abilities. Getting hit with the Slowed Condition before they're next to a target removes their durability, prevents many of their dangerous abilities, and may very well prevent them from actually engaging with an opponent to perform their Striker duties. So, as long as the players know to have someone with decent Sensors hit the Berserker with a FragSig (Fragment Signal Invade) before they've had a chance to Avalanche Charge, they're basically a non-threat for that turn so long as nobody is close enough for them to move up and attack.

The other major issue is that they share the same weakness inherent to all melee frames and even CQC frames do, which is being significantly more at risk in general due to the method of their playstyle. Just by nature of requiring to be closer to your enemy that means you're more likely to be in range of multiple enemies at a time and usually less able to take advantage of cover. While melee frames ignore cover themselves, this does mean they naturally have less of a lifespan than a similarly statted frame attacking at a greater distance. Due to this fact along with the previously mentioned issues of a Berserker's durability, this means that Berserker is going to generally melt unlike most other Strikers.

But not all is doom and gloom. While I have railed on the Berserker for often being far less durable than it might ought to be, the Berserker does make up for that with how much damage it can put out in the short time it is alive. With the ability to Avalanche Charge into a Skirmish and then possibly get hit and trigger its Aggression, that's a whole lotta damage someone's about to eat. While unlikely due to a lack of much real Accuracy or other bonuses to its attack, the Critical Effect also makes it even more reliable in getting through hard targets. But that will likely require setup with other allies to more consistently pull off.

And that's about it for the basic details of the Berserker. I didn't talk about much else because unfortunately, the Berserker doesn't have much else it can do that I personally find to be a good option. You can consider Grappling targets, it does have a good Hull stat to keep a hold of someone, but that's better off utilized with its Optionals than using the Grapple quick action. If they've lived standing next to a target you might want to consider a Lock-On before they make their attack, but otherwise the Berserker wants to run into the enemy, hit them hard, then die quickly. Their optionals mix this up a bit, but if they aren't doing this then they're probably not being very helpful to their team. So let's dig in to the Optionals, shall we?

Optionals 

Juggernaut - Given that Berserkers want to use Avalanche Charge to start their engagement, knocking their target prone for an Accuracy bonus sounds fantastic. While that's the obvious use case, it can also be used if your Party tends to group up to inflict multiple of them with Prone and halt an advance, potentially turning the Berserker into a short lived Controller in a way. Just remember that the Avalanche Charge doesn't knock people out of the way or allow Berserkers to push through targets, so to best utilize this you need to go between or stop adjacent to multiple targets.

Harpoon Cannon - One of the two weapon Optionals the Berserker has, and in my opinion the best one. Not only does it help circumvent the penalties of being Slowed where enemies are kept out of reach, but grappling opponents naturally pairs well with the Berserkers game plan as it obviously wants an enemy next to it as it takes damage and makes its attacks. It also offers a greater Threat that makes it more troublesome to bypass, but I consider this an uncommon plus to utilize. However, one use case that isn't obvious is using the Harpoon Cannon to fire at Size 2 or larger objects and forcefully pull the Berserker to a position. This overrides things like difficult terrain or Slowed or Immobilized, meaning it can still traverse even without movement. Fantastic tool.

Nail Gun - While I called the Harpoon Cannon the best weapon, the Nail Gun has its own uses. For one, it does a lot more damage than the Harpoon Cannon and is more of a decent sidearm to utilize against distant targets. The Berserker doesn't get much inherent benefit from Immobilizing targets beyond locking then down after a Juggernaut boosted Avalanche Charge to really lock them down, but keeping a target pinned for a turn is still useful on a lot of mobility based Sitreps to disrupt the enemy. Personally I think the best use of this is to give the Berserker both the Nail Gun and the Harpoon Cannon, turning it into a reasonable CQC Striker with an interesting toolkit to pull from.

Retribution - On basic, non-Templated Berserkers, I think this is one of the weaker Optionals. Berserkers just don't tend to last long enough to get much use out of this. One a Berserker with 2 or more Structure however, this can quickly add up to be a lot of damage over the course of a group trying to destroy them and gets better the more Structure they have for obvious reasons. Just keep in mind the bonuses are lost on attack, not hit.

Superhot -  Unless your group has a Grappler or Melee mech of some variety, completely worthless. If your group has 1 melee mech, it's okay. And if they have 2 or more then it's a great trait. But seeing as to get any value they need to have a melee target and be engaged with that target, this isn't an obvious pick even in such a situation.

Recommended Sitreps 

Berserkers do well wherever they can start their turn and immediate Boost + Avalanche Charge into a nearby foe. So almost all of them, except maybe Control due to the distance that can be involved due to the Ingress Zone's location. They're great in Escorts, Extractions and Gauntlets due to being able to start wherever might allow them to survive a turn without getting targeted or focused down. Just don't use them defensively, as that is not a strong suit of theirs.

Recommended Allies

Berserkers don't really struggle to fit in on any team composition. However, they do have some strong allies in the Aegis and Support, who can ensure their dreaded Slowed condition is not a factor before they can pop off. They can also be used on compositions with frames like Lurkers, Hornets, or anyone else that's inclined to eat Tech Attacks. Through combining all of the E-Defense weak classes together, you provide a sort of protection with the concept of not being able to invade all of them.

Other Considerations  

I would try not to go overly hard on a Berserker centric composition against newer players as though it's obviously a great method to deal with them for anyone who's dealt with them before or has a robust theoretical knowledge of Lancer it's not quite as obvious to someone just starting the game. Due to how much punishment they can push out, and punish getting shot at which might be a newer player's first instinct, they can leave a sour taste in player's mouths. So if they're an unknown to your group, try to signal them and maybe hold off on any crazy shenanigans with them until they understand how to handle them!

Final Thoughts

Berserkers have felt like one of the trickier Strikers to use due to everything i've discussed. I love the concept, but they're rarely done much then get a swing in and then melt to withering concentrated firepower once someone threw a hack at them. I might modify them for my own games going forward, we'll see!