You know what I miss, the intro. It's been a year since you last used it in a video from what I can tell, but I still play it in my head to make up for it
He was receiving a lot of complaints about the long intro I guess. Only the OGs love his intro I believe, but his channel has boomed a lot and the newer audience doesn't really enjoy its legacy. How each and every clip came into being, the original videos of the snippets and so on...
I've been long wanting a new series of civ overviews by spirit since the ones on the channel are already tooooo old. But I guess that won't be coming anytime soon with all the new content aoe4 is also providing...
Only in 1v1. Massed skirms can still bring down a berserk. Still, those skirms won't be massed for long once you slaughter them, and there's still a good chance you'll get out of it without losing any units.
@@Greywander87 That does impose a pretty heavy micro tax on the opponent, as well. You can a-move your Berserks into skirmishers, and they'll have to micro their units to accomplish anything, as otherwise the shots would be distributed and wasted.
You what’s also really interesting? How this patch and patches in general affect old campaigns as some one who has been playing a ton of of the campaigns patches like this drastically effect how that they play out generally cuz you have low pop or eco limits or relegated to purely military units. So scenarios and campaigns playing against Vikings is now in theory should be harder or easier if you are playing as them
Does this even affect the campaigns? I finished all of the DE campaigns before the next addon came out, so I never took notice of it. But I know for example that in Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 patches do not affect the campaigns at all, since they run on their own "version" of the game. Which actually can become quite confusing with units having different costs or stuff like that.
I don't know I played the classic campaigns in hd edition for the last time and it was the same thing than my first time around 2006 I didn't tried in definitive edition yet
@@GarkKahn Definitive Edition updated a lot of the old campaigns. Some scenarios were slightly improved, some of the really bad ones changed entirely (like the Magyar Forgotten scenario), and all of them have had their civs updated to match the civs you're supposed to actually be fighting if said civ was added over the years (the last Genghis Khan scenario has had the enemy changed from Teutons to Magyars for instance). Besides which DE added four of its own new campaigns, and it's two DLCs since have added 6 more as well for a total of 10 new campaigns (and also 8 new civs).
One thing I've been enjoying in the videos lately is the list of patrons at the end. Keep up the support Ilicktoesatnight. I love hearing your name every video.
Thinking about it, his army composition makes a ton of sense. Mass scorpion/onager counters archers and champions, which berserks are weak against. While berserks counter the cavalry which siege is weak to. And if the opponent sends mass trash, berserk+siege shreds that too.
Berserks were always kind of a snowbally unit. You kill a player, heal up, then kill the next one. I remember going through every civ in 3v3 ai matches on hardest and just healing after killing one guy. You can do that with monks too but that takes time and requires returning to monks and knowing to train them. Otherwise it looks like longswords are still more cost efficient due to chieftains also applying to them. That getting 1 extra vill per healing berserk at 2:45 is insane and why I found myself hard popcapped. Units weren't dying. I'm gonna start equating healing to gathering resources. Thanks for the change in perspective.
It sounds like infantry unique units could use just a little more love. IMO you should *really* want to use your unique over a generic version, and the Supplies buff to Champion has really made that not the case for most infantry uniques due to the champion almost always being more cost-efficient. Maybe take 5 food off the costs of infantry uniques across the board, and/or one more round of minor buffs to their Elite versions (like another +1 attack on Berserks).
You’re right, there’s nothing worse than a unique unit that isn’t quite worth the effort. I play for fun and mainly play civs where the unique version interests me (eg. Slavs, Mongols, Vikings, - and Britons in closed maps).
I gotta be with you in loving Japanese Samurai, but Viking Berserks will ALWAYS be my second infantry love. I'm really liking the whole 'infantry' focus they're going with in AOE2. I really wouldn't be surprised if LSM becomes a free castle-age upgrade if you have MAA, and they get a small speed bonus as well.
with new civs getting more frequently "techs one age earlier", I do believe the next step for an infantry civ wil be THS in castle. Just Like Burgundians have Cavalier in castle and Bohemians have Chemistry and Hand Cannoneer in castle. That would be really interesting to play around with.
Vikings don't have herbal medicine so they would only receive the 12 HP/ min from castles. While this helps other units would receive more 72 vs 52 per min.
Hey _Spirit of the Law._ I have a slightly off topic question. I have noticed before that damage isn't always dealt consistently. This is very noticeable at 8:51 where the Berserk strikes first and consistently deals damage throughout the fight. However, the Champion quickly catches up to and surpasses the Berserk despite having the same attack speed. Even more curiously, when the Berserk is about to deal the killing blow, the Champion stops dealing damage. Almost as if it was rolling back to correct the damage output. I was wondering if you knew anything about this phenomenon. Love your vids btw.
@@Leitis_Fella A and Å are different (but very related) letters, but I think swedes would use Å here. The pronounciation is also different, but definitely not the flat A that anglophones would use.
@@larspeterthomsen9798 Yes, it's "bärsärkargång" (gå bärsärkargång = to go berserk) in swedish. It's a term that is still used to describe acts of violence and crazy behaviour. "Gång" is a word with alot of different meanings. Some examples: Walking, a path, keep up = hålla igång, one at a time = en åt gången, time after time = gång på gång, something is going on = något är på gång.
@@Leitis_Fella @larspeterthomsen9798 Norwegians however wouldn't use Å or any diacritics for this, it would be plain "Berserkergang". And the Vikings in AoE2 speak old Norwegian so it's correct. (Also, Å isn't a diacritic letter in Norwegian, it's a separate letter from A)
I wonder how different AoE II would look if all organic units slowly healed over time. There might be more incentive for armies to retreat and recover rather than just throwing units into the meatgrinder because they won't get any stronger without extra investment into Monks. It's also interesting that, with all of the new unique units introduced since the days of The Conquerors expansion, self-healing remains unique to Berserks.
Yeah, but as you saw they fare as well as viking champions with +10 HP because of their regeneration. In theory I would agree with you, but it practice it is not nessicery that they get more HP.
@@light_david7 true the Viking champion needs a place in their build somewhere. It’s just that it’s hard to fit both into any game plan since they fill similar rolls.
@@keisuketakahashi4124 Got 2-3+ castles and haven't done most of the militia-line upgrades? Go Berserks. Got no castles or just the one for Chieftains? Go Champs. Do you want to focus mostly on raiding or just feel like you need the mobility? Berserks are the better choice. Do you just want a meat shield behind your ranged units? Champs are more cost effective is most cases. Enemy has Eagles? Berserks can almost keep up with them, while the Champs really lag behind. That should cover the vast majority of scenarios for each unit, and you should never tech or use both (unless you started with multiple castles but ended up losing them), big waste of resources. And to the first point, like SOTL said, Elite Berserkers have exactly the same HP as they had before, just the castle age unit gets more HP now, would make little sense to buff a unit that is already considered to be very strong in imp.
I don't think it's necessary to make them hold up better against ranged units (which HP bonuses affect more, generally), which is their main counter. They are really well balanced and one of the best infantry UUs already.
Really wish Berserks were still more unique. Think they could be a great raiding unit and have something like the keshik's gold generation but for buildings or a bonus against farms and eco buildings
An awesome civilization bonus would be like "Earn 10% of the resource value of every building they destroy" or "gain +5 of every resource when razing a building" or "plunder resources from a respective economic building (+30 food from mills, +15 gold/stone from mining camps, +30 wood from lumber camps, +100 each for destroying a TC). These can obviously be tweaked if they're too OP but I can definitely see this as a feature of Vikings. And to give players more incentive to use berserks for raiding, give them a big attack bonus against economic buildings specifically (+8 instead of +4, for example), just thinking out loud
@@ctenbrinke Yes! Though it seems pretty minor imo. I wish they got gold for farms, houses and econ buildings. I haven't tested the current version, but I can't imagine it could be more than 200-300 gold at a fairly late stage in the game?
That's why they are expensive, also Vikings can afford them with that really strong eco bonus. With Arbalesters out of the picture, you can focus Berserk transition on Imp as it is their only best choice now.
We need a completely new architecture set for the Vikings (That resemble their beautiful Norse church wonder) The main emphasis is on the long boats and their over use of Arbs, the rest are not to important and can be left as is. Have Vikings lose free hand cart + lose Arbalerster but instead they get Halbedier,(NB!) have their longboats be able to attack as well as transport units (Infantry/vils/monks/kings only) (loses transport ships but they have non attacking Longboats in feudal age.) and gift them cheap trash units.They could also give the berserkers a new trait that allows them to accumulate Food or Gold when damaging an enemy building thus aiding in their ecco in an accurate and interesting way. Castles cost change to 450 stone and 300 wood (Wood castles have lower HP) OR... Since they get Halbs change their unique tech Chieftains to allow Beserks to be made in TCs even after all castles have been lost. I’d enjoy raiding coastlines and rivers using longboats to transport infantry and skirms to the shores of my enemies. I'd say give them other buffs to help in the late game, for instance to have their eco speciality exchanged with the Byzantines speciality. The Vikings came from a cold, barren mountainous/fjord covered boggy area, Norway,Sweden,Scandinavia where agriculture was highly difficult to maintain, thus their focus was on fishing, but as their culture and cities grew, it became a necessity to raid other shores/peoples in order to survive and thrive. Thus they started to use their brilliant longboats to conquer the northern seas and raid countless European and Mediterranean kingdoms. So I was wandering, why the devs gave the Vikings (Which literally mean Raiders) such a strong economy by means of free handcart and wheelbarrow? Where the Byzantines are famous for already having a well established society and Empire by the time of the Middle ages (They had wheelbarrow even before the Western Roman empire fell), with a professional standing army and immense economy and trade. (For such a strong wealthy Empire, why do they have to focus on Trash units in game?) For me, the two civs will be perfectly compensated to have those two traits switch. The Byzantines get an ecco upgrade like free wheelbarrow and the Vikings get cheap trash units. Now, combine that with Viking Wood architecture Castles: Castles cost change to 450 stone and 300 wood (Wood castles have lower HP but they can create a lot more of them due to less stone cost) OR... Since they get Halbs change their unique tech Chieftains to allow Beserks to be made in TCs even after all castles have been lost. That will always allow Vikings to create Beserkes in large numbers and have cheap Halbs and skirms to back them up throughout the game and into the late game. No need for arbs. Then you take your Berserks+ trash , get onto your longboats and go Viking/Raid the enemy shores. (Without wasting wood nor pop space on Transport ships) They could also give the berserkers a new trait that allows them to accumulate Food or Gold when damaging an enemy building thus aiding in their ecco in an accurate and interesting way.
Imperial Skirmishers should do 20 damage per minute (3 x 60/3 = 60 right, then the 40 H.P. regen per second). Not amazing, but the potential to overcome a late game Viking player who still has a Berserk-army left over is much improved then!
It's also worth noting that Berserkergang has since been worked directly into the Elite Upgrade (with no increase in cost) and replaced with another UT that boosts Archers, so they're now even better than they used to be in terms of Upgrade Time/Resources.
Two Elite Zerks beat a Frank Paladin, theyre crazy strong. WHile u might argue just use Pikes, Zerks are much stronger at pushing fortified bases and raiding.
@@dirkauditore8413 The versatility is impressive. I can see this being a big surprise for many players. It'll be interesting to see how Vikings do over time in ranked play.
a really big diffrence between swordsmen and Berserks is the time to full power. assuming you have more than 1 castle (which is proably a given if you contemplate going Berserks anyway) you can upgrade all the important techs simultaniously while the Champ upgrades need to be researched consecutively. these are 5 minutes of your life you never get back. so they are faster in more than one way
The main application I think people fail to mention regarding berserk regeneration is that it helps them retreat. We're talking about a raiding unit that, otherwise, isn't very adapted to raiding. The regen lets a handful of berserks run all the way back home from a raid WHILE being pursued by knights and likely only lose a couple units.
Thanks for another great video SoTL ! 🙏😊 I can only play AoE2 Age of Kings, but have hardly ever played Vikings and have NEVER made a Berserk unit. So, in the first 30 seconds, you taught me something new today ! 👍😇 M 🦘🏏😎
@@markdowse3572 Sorry if that sounded ignorant, im just really surprised by players who still play AoK and not the Conquerors expansion which is already a nice improvement over AoK. I think your pc should be able to run AoE 2 HD, because the only 'big' difference to original AoE 2 is that you can play with slightly higher resolution, but the graphics are still like 99% the same. And again, HD has better balance, less bugs, more civilisations etc. I'd give it a go unless you already have and it didnt work. 🙂
Due to rounding difference, the new Elite Berserk has -1 HP (74) compared to before (75). Rounding off difference between the new flat +20% HP and the older staggered +10/15/20% that is.
Berserk are always good even in the old days. I love to training them when i am vikings BTW,my dude could you plz do the Burgundian civ overview? I am kinda wanna learn more about this cive since i bought the dlc recently. And good job Nice video bro
I haven't played much since the patch. I love the new berserks but I do worry that the unit may overall suffer in imperial with the lack of thumb ring skirmishers. Zerk + skirm was the composition
Definitely the one unit I never ever felt like needed buffing, but I'm not complaining. The vikings are amongst my favourite civs (and not only because I happen to be a longhaired, longbearded swede myself). The (elite) berserk is probably my favourite infantry unit, combining speed, attack, building destruction and the added bonus of self-healing. Their ability to tear down buildings is second to none, you almost don't need siege when raiding with them.
To be fair, only castle age berserks are significantly stronger now, which makes sense considering they are more expensive than longswords but only had the selfhealing advantage where as attack and hp were pretty much identical. In imperial age, elite berserks are the same as before except -1 hp.
I think it would be cool for you to talk about your database and how you use multiple coding languages (I’m assuming SQL and Python) to create this product.
One thing you missed about the Zerks' stats is the attack animation which boosts the morale and increases their efficiency during combat. Seriously, this cannot be underestimated
Even after these long and long patches, all infantry units (including uu) are still not used in most situations. I think the dev team just gives some upgrades free, or let them splash damage the building (arson fits well here!). Or should find a way to get them into the Spear-crossbow-knight formula.
I'd say make the Militia line move faster, same base speed as archers. Maybe give them 1 extra pierce armor too. And maybe make some Infantry UU available at the Barracks upon reaching castle age. Though you'd still need a castle for the Elite upgrade and the unique techs.
@@dirkauditore8413 It will probably have only a limited impact. Currently, swordman line is unilaterally attacked by an archer and has a lower riding ability than an archer or light cav. What they can do is that light cavally can do better, faster, and more efficiently. I think we need to give swordman more aggressive role.
Plenty of people have tried to appeal to the devs about it, but they don't seem to care. I haven't touched DE in months now after I became bored of the archer/cav meta.
@@Jacks_Suffocating_Nihilism Exactly. Slight discouts on infantry UU's won't cut it. . There need to be RADICAL changes to make infantry just as viable as archers and caav. Giving infantry extra movement speed and pierce armor is a start.
@@dirkauditore8413 Disagree with a blanket speed boost, but they absolutely need to be made either hardier or cheaper to compete with ranged attack and mobility. I suggested giving the militia line +1P, +10HP, and a large building attack bonus starting in Feudal. It would make them viable leading into Castle, which is where they really struggle, and would be a nice means to punish passive play which is currently far too strong.
not sure if it's such a good idea to make them even better than frank paladins (in terms of resources)! those who are typically good with knights suck with crossbows. should i know fight elite berserks with frigging crossbows or what? sure, handcannon could work, but they are expensive, slow, easy to kill and the chemistry tech takes forever.
Don't think the upgrade cost truly is an issue as especially Beserkergang is just a nice bonus that's worth it when you're already swimming in rescources, but not neededto make the unit strong. The castle age buff is so huge that you might very well be able to overwhelm the enemy by swarming them with berserks, not even needing the berserk upgrade in early imp and rather creating 20 more of them for the same cost. Or just staying in castle age for a long while, destroying them in that age. Try counter berserk + arb/skirm
Given the gold cost (of both unit and techs it needs) and ranged weakness - skirms seem like a very good pairing, no? And it leaves U with more gold for siege and/or prolonged berserk flood if the enemy goes into cav
I know right. I feel infantry and cavalry civs are given more important than Archer civs. Mayans were my favourite civ until they changed the unique tech to "buff" skirms.
I would be interested to see a Vikings vs Goth Flood comparison. I wonder if they are strong enough to win with equal resources, but also how many castles you need to be able to spam enough units to win. Actually I would love to see how all melee infantry units fair against Goth flood, I wonder which civ is the best against that? Japanese maybe?
something I just discovered. that the tracking image looks like a horse has walked there. however, it does not answer the biggest question, when will vikings in aoe2 get Halberdiers?
Never. The combo of the Viking economy powering the Halb+Arb+Ram push in Early Imp is deemed to be too powerful. The chances are even less since they added Cheiftains and then extended it to all infantry including the Spearman-line. The extra HP Pikes with Chieftains are the Viking substitute for Halbs.
Would love a fun video on how you would incorporate units from aoe1 and aom into aoe2 as unique units or new generic units. For example hoplites might be a unique non trash anti cav unit, like a more mobile Teutonic knight with a cav bonus.
sugestion: A video to investigate the "real eco bonus" of incas. They are performing so good analisyng data (even better than aztecs). Many small bonus together really make them great? how to compare to other civis? (free 100 food, less time and resources building houses, farms building faster...
My problem with infantry UU is that they sorta melt together. Like yeah you got ones that stand out like husk or samurai or jag. But the rest are just the same. Idk what's the difference between woad raiders and berserks is. They both run fast too
Though Woad Raiders move faster and have a shorter creation time, Berserks are stronger overall against most infantry (except jaguars, samurai, teutonic knights and maybe obuch) and even more cavalry units, (especially knights, light cav, not cataphracts of course) thanks to the chieftain upgrade.
Zerks are good vs melee units, especially cavalry. Woads are more of a raiding unit, and due to their high speed and high HP I'd say they can surround archers rather quickly.
I think its an amazing all around unit somewhat comparable to byzantine cataphract and its immunity to spears. The champion only seems healthier because its a viking champion. Many infantry focused civ's will beat them in a straight fight using a unique unit or a special tech such as goth cheaper units or Aztec +4 attack. However it will still do better vs archers or knights than nearly any and if you're considering both its probably the best.
@@markdowse3572 It's usually subjective but sometimes it's objective. Show me someone who doesn't think that Teutonic Knights are cool. And Berserks are the same.
Would Cavalry Archers be a viable option for support to keep up with the faster movement, or are crossbows just a better overall pairing even if they might fall behind a little?
Vikings get the worst CAs in the game. No Heavy Cav Archer, no Thumb Ring and Parthian Tactics, no Bloodlines, no Husbandry. At least they get Bracer and Ring Archer Armor though.
@@jefffinkbonner9551 Oh yeah, they'd be about as useful as guys on bicycles with nerf guns, but at least for raiding they'd keep up a little better, and if you're not taking a direct fight the negatives might not show as bad.
On several occasions, I asked in twitch chat pro players what do they think will make infantry a viable option just as archers and knights, but so far none of them gave me a straight answer. We probably need to see a lot more cost reduction for the upgrades or giving them a special ability. I mean, cavalry is fast and mobile, archers have range, but what can we add to infantry to give it a niche strategy advantage? Maybe more damage against villagers and economy building??
@@tkzsfen I dont want to just make infantry spammable but more attractive to use for players. Having infantry make more damage vs buildings than knights & archers (like you mentioned) could also be a good idea.
You know what I miss, the intro. It's been a year since you last used it in a video from what I can tell, but I still play it in my head to make up for it
Same here; I especially loved the villager destroying the Cobra car. Do you know why it was removed?
@@ariverbai9681 na I have no clue. I just get early access to the videos
@@ariverbai9681 he didn't want to plug his music anymore.
his content is cleaner without it, and seems more modern (long intros are sooo 2010). but yeah i loved the old intro too!
He was receiving a lot of complaints about the long intro I guess. Only the OGs love his intro I believe, but his channel has boomed a lot and the newer audience doesn't really enjoy its legacy. How each and every clip came into being, the original videos of the snippets and so on...
if this means a remake of the vikings overview I'm all for it
He hasnt even reviewed Poles and Bohemians
@@SIGNOR-G but vikings is kinda outdated. Like, 6 years old outdated
@@poyloos4834 as many other civs
I've been long wanting a new series of civ overviews by spirit since the ones on the channel are already tooooo old. But I guess that won't be coming anytime soon with all the new content aoe4 is also providing...
Everything changes so fast nowadays. ^^
No one can keep up.
I’m glad to see infantry being better nowadays since I love massing infantry
This. 👍
I know the exact build order and best units for each civ
Yet i always go with a mix of infantry, cavalry and some monks
When you said that berserks heal at 40hp per minute I immediately went "That makes them virtually invincible to skirmishers." Cool.
Only in 1v1. Massed skirms can still bring down a berserk. Still, those skirms won't be massed for long once you slaughter them, and there's still a good chance you'll get out of it without losing any units.
@@Greywander87 That does impose a pretty heavy micro tax on the opponent, as well. You can a-move your Berserks into skirmishers, and they'll have to micro their units to accomplish anything, as otherwise the shots would be distributed and wasted.
That makes them SCREEN SAVERS 😂
You what’s also really interesting? How this patch and patches in general affect old campaigns as some one who has been playing a ton of of the campaigns patches like this drastically effect how that they play out generally cuz you have low pop or eco limits or relegated to purely military units. So scenarios and campaigns playing against Vikings is now in theory should be harder or easier if you are playing as them
Does this even affect the campaigns? I finished all of the DE campaigns before the next addon came out, so I never took notice of it. But I know for example that in Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 patches do not affect the campaigns at all, since they run on their own "version" of the game. Which actually can become quite confusing with units having different costs or stuff like that.
@@ottokarl5427 Yes it does. AoE 2 doesn't use separate balance for campaign versus other game modes. I think AoE 4 does tho.
@@ArawnOfAnnwn Oh okay, good to know, thanks!
I don't know
I played the classic campaigns in hd edition for the last time and it was the same thing than my first time around 2006
I didn't tried in definitive edition yet
@@GarkKahn Definitive Edition updated a lot of the old campaigns. Some scenarios were slightly improved, some of the really bad ones changed entirely (like the Magyar Forgotten scenario), and all of them have had their civs updated to match the civs you're supposed to actually be fighting if said civ was added over the years (the last Genghis Khan scenario has had the enemy changed from Teutons to Magyars for instance). Besides which DE added four of its own new campaigns, and it's two DLCs since have added 6 more as well for a total of 10 new campaigns (and also 8 new civs).
The berserks will be one of my favourite unit of all the ages and empires!
Will be? Why not now?
@@ZoMbi5lAy3r I have to reinstall the game in my new computer....
What about Teutonic Knight?
@@aimps19 My second best choice. The only difference for me is the autohealing
@@ashclaw2306 Cool.
One thing I've been enjoying in the videos lately is the list of patrons at the end. Keep up the support Ilicktoesatnight. I love hearing your name every video.
its actually a Patreon wall of shame full of neckbeards
*"How good are Berserks?"*
A certain fatslob : *"Yes."*
Thinking about it, his army composition makes a ton of sense. Mass scorpion/onager counters archers and champions, which berserks are weak against. While berserks counter the cavalry which siege is weak to. And if the opponent sends mass trash, berserk+siege shreds that too.
Berserks were always kind of a snowbally unit. You kill a player, heal up, then kill the next one. I remember going through every civ in 3v3 ai matches on hardest and just healing after killing one guy. You can do that with monks too but that takes time and requires returning to monks and knowing to train them. Otherwise it looks like longswords are still more cost efficient due to chieftains also applying to them.
That getting 1 extra vill per healing berserk at 2:45 is insane and why I found myself hard popcapped. Units weren't dying. I'm gonna start equating healing to gathering resources. Thanks for the change in perspective.
It sounds like infantry unique units could use just a little more love. IMO you should *really* want to use your unique over a generic version, and the Supplies buff to Champion has really made that not the case for most infantry uniques due to the champion almost always being more cost-efficient. Maybe take 5 food off the costs of infantry uniques across the board, and/or one more round of minor buffs to their Elite versions (like another +1 attack on Berserks).
You’re right, there’s nothing worse than a unique unit that isn’t quite worth the effort. I play for fun and mainly play civs where the unique version interests me (eg. Slavs, Mongols, Vikings, - and Britons in closed maps).
I'm just waiting for them to say, "To hell with it, the Teutonic Knight now gets the +1/+2 armor bonus."
"Downside of Berserks is the expensive upgrades"
Don't underestimate the Viking economy with free wheelbarrow and handcart
I gotta be with you in loving Japanese Samurai, but Viking Berserks will ALWAYS be my second infantry love. I'm really liking the whole 'infantry' focus they're going with in AOE2. I really wouldn't be surprised if LSM becomes a free castle-age upgrade if you have MAA, and they get a small speed bonus as well.
with new civs getting more frequently "techs one age earlier", I do believe the next step for an infantry civ wil be THS in castle. Just Like Burgundians have Cavalier in castle and Bohemians have Chemistry and Hand Cannoneer in castle. That would be really interesting to play around with.
It's nice to see infantry getting more love lately, it's always been my favourite strategy in aoe2
"The Beserk is an amazing anti-trash unit."
It's a historical change to reflect on how easily they conquered England.
Are you suggesting the saxons were trash lol
@@berserkerstrommortsgreb3131 I think he's suggesting England is trash lol
Based
@@6thdim 😆
It wasnt a suggestion
Elite Berserk vs Elite Skirmisher
"Standing here, I realize..."
Man, it's hilarious that they are so strong against skirms hahahah
"Makes a great screen saver" hahahaha
do they heal faster when in a castle on top of their innate ability? how's the math, just addition?
Vikings don't have herbal medicine so they would only receive the 12 HP/ min from castles. While this helps other units would receive more 72 vs 52 per min.
Berserkergang is just one of the coolest words ever
The word does not refer to a gang of berserkers, but the act of going berserk, and the "a" in "gang" should thus be pronounced like the "a" in "arm".
2:40 love that randomly passing eagle
Hey _Spirit of the Law._ I have a slightly off topic question. I have noticed before that damage isn't always dealt consistently. This is very noticeable at 8:51 where the Berserk strikes first and consistently deals damage throughout the fight. However, the Champion quickly catches up to and surpasses the Berserk despite having the same attack speed. Even more curiously, when the Berserk is about to deal the killing blow, the Champion stops dealing damage. Almost as if it was rolling back to correct the damage output. I was wondering if you knew anything about this phenomenon.
Love your vids btw.
That fight looked strange to me, as well. I don't have an explanation, but it's something I'll keep an eye out for in the future.
They should make the longboats garrison able already! Change my mind
Yes. Not as much as transport though. But yes
Maybe only infantry to not make transport ships useless, but yes, make them garrisonable
Great video as always. Considering playing more Vikings. Still cracks me up hearing someone paid every month for SOTL to say ‘I pick toes at night’…
Love your videos! still waiting for the Burgundians civ overview, unless you are still waiting for the flemish revolution to be gone 😜
What reason for the assumption that the Flemish revolution tech will be removed?
@@TheZestyCar The joke mainly is that everyone basically hates it for being too gimmicky
The "a" in "Berserkergang" is pronounced like the first "a" in "Arbalest". It does not refer to a group of berserkers.
Does it use the same diacritic as the A in Ångström?
@@Leitis_Fella A and Å are different (but very related) letters, but I think swedes would use Å here. The pronounciation is also different, but definitely not the flat A that anglophones would use.
@@larspeterthomsen9798 Yes, it's "bärsärkargång" (gå bärsärkargång = to go berserk) in swedish. It's a term that is still used to describe acts of violence and crazy behaviour. "Gång" is a word with alot of different meanings. Some examples:
Walking, a path, keep up = hålla igång, one at a time = en åt gången, time after time = gång på gång, something is going on = något är på gång.
@@larspeterthomsen9798 As a swede, we'd say "Bärsärkagång", meaning the act of going berserk.
@@Leitis_Fella @larspeterthomsen9798 Norwegians however wouldn't use Å or any diacritics for this, it would be plain "Berserkergang". And the Vikings in AoE2 speak old Norwegian so it's correct. (Also, Å isn't a diacritic letter in Norwegian, it's a separate letter from A)
I wonder how different AoE II would look if all organic units slowly healed over time. There might be more incentive for armies to retreat and recover rather than just throwing units into the meatgrinder because they won't get any stronger without extra investment into Monks.
It's also interesting that, with all of the new unique units introduced since the days of The Conquerors expansion, self-healing remains unique to Berserks.
I feel like berzerks should get more HP when they are upgraded to elite. +9 seems like so little
Yeah, but as you saw they fare as well as viking champions with +10 HP because of their regeneration. In theory I would agree with you, but it practice it is not nessicery that they get more HP.
@@light_david7 true the Viking champion needs a place in their build somewhere. It’s just that it’s hard to fit both into any game plan since they fill similar rolls.
@@keisuketakahashi4124 Got 2-3+ castles and haven't done most of the militia-line upgrades? Go Berserks. Got no castles or just the one for Chieftains? Go Champs. Do you want to focus mostly on raiding or just feel like you need the mobility? Berserks are the better choice. Do you just want a meat shield behind your ranged units? Champs are more cost effective is most cases. Enemy has Eagles? Berserks can almost keep up with them, while the Champs really lag behind. That should cover the vast majority of scenarios for each unit, and you should never tech or use both (unless you started with multiple castles but ended up losing them), big waste of resources.
And to the first point, like SOTL said, Elite Berserkers have exactly the same HP as they had before, just the castle age unit gets more HP now, would make little sense to buff a unit that is already considered to be very strong in imp.
@@ComeRestusFX nah. berserks is useless. everything they can do other units can do it better, cheaper.
I don't think it's necessary to make them hold up better against ranged units (which HP bonuses affect more, generally), which is their main counter. They are really well balanced and one of the best infantry UUs already.
Really wish Berserks were still more unique. Think they could be a great raiding unit and have something like the keshik's gold generation but for buildings or a bonus against farms and eco buildings
Now that would be (historically) awesome!
Maybe they get a certain amount of resources if they last hit Mining Camps/Lumber Camps/Mills/Markets/Farms
An awesome civilization bonus would be like "Earn 10% of the resource value of every building they destroy" or "gain +5 of every resource when razing a building" or "plunder resources from a respective economic building (+30 food from mills, +15 gold/stone from mining camps, +30 wood from lumber camps, +100 each for destroying a TC). These can obviously be tweaked if they're too OP but I can definitely see this as a feature of Vikings. And to give players more incentive to use berserks for raiding, give them a big attack bonus against economic buildings specifically (+8 instead of +4, for example), just thinking out loud
seems like you got what you wanted
@@ctenbrinke Yes! Though it seems pretty minor imo. I wish they got gold for farms, houses and econ buildings. I haven't tested the current version, but I can't imagine it could be more than 200-300 gold at a fairly late stage in the game?
Berserk is probably the most all round infantry in game but very expensive to upgrade to its full potential.
what about huscarls tho?
@@Anduardus Better at raiding but terrible against melee units. The Beserk is more of an all rounder
@@Anduardus Huskarls hard counter ranged units, but they don't do as well against other melee unites.
Obuch
That's why they are expensive, also Vikings can afford them with that really strong eco bonus. With Arbalesters out of the picture, you can focus Berserk transition on Imp as it is their only best choice now.
We need a completely new architecture set for the Vikings (That resemble their beautiful Norse church wonder)
The main emphasis is on the long boats and their over use of Arbs, the rest are not to important and can be left as is.
Have Vikings lose free hand cart + lose Arbalerster but instead they get Halbedier,(NB!) have their longboats be able to attack as well as transport units (Infantry/vils/monks/kings only) (loses transport ships but they have non attacking Longboats in feudal age.) and gift them cheap trash units.They could also give the berserkers a new trait that allows them to accumulate Food or Gold when damaging an enemy building thus aiding in their ecco in an accurate and interesting way.
Castles cost change to 450 stone and 300 wood (Wood castles have lower HP) OR... Since they get Halbs change their unique tech Chieftains to allow Beserks to be made in TCs even after all castles have been lost.
I’d enjoy raiding coastlines and rivers using longboats to transport infantry and skirms to the shores of my enemies.
I'd say give them other buffs to help in the late game, for instance to have their eco speciality exchanged with the Byzantines speciality.
The Vikings came from a cold, barren mountainous/fjord covered boggy area, Norway,Sweden,Scandinavia where agriculture was highly difficult to maintain, thus their focus was on fishing, but as their culture and cities grew, it became a necessity to raid other shores/peoples in order to survive and thrive. Thus they started to use their brilliant longboats to conquer the northern seas and raid countless European and Mediterranean kingdoms. So I was wandering, why the devs gave the Vikings (Which literally mean Raiders) such a strong economy by means of free handcart and wheelbarrow?
Where the Byzantines are famous for already having a well established society and Empire by the time of the Middle ages (They had wheelbarrow even before the Western Roman empire fell), with a professional standing army and immense economy and trade. (For such a strong wealthy Empire, why do they have to focus on Trash units in game?)
For me, the two civs will be perfectly compensated to have those two traits switch.
The Byzantines get an ecco upgrade like free wheelbarrow and the Vikings get cheap trash units.
Now, combine that with Viking Wood architecture Castles: Castles cost change to 450 stone and 300 wood (Wood castles have lower HP but they can create a lot more of them due to less stone cost) OR... Since they get Halbs change their unique tech Chieftains to allow Beserks to be made in TCs even after all castles have been lost.
That will always allow Vikings to create Beserkes in large numbers and have cheap Halbs and skirms to back them up throughout the game and into the late game. No need for arbs. Then you take your Berserks+ trash , get onto your longboats and go Viking/Raid the enemy shores. (Without wasting wood nor pop space on Transport ships) They could also give the berserkers a new trait that allows them to accumulate Food or Gold when damaging an enemy building thus aiding in their ecco in an accurate and interesting way.
“TIL-BAR-DAGA intensifies”
Imperial Skirmishers should do 20 damage per minute (3 x 60/3 = 60 right, then the 40 H.P. regen per second).
Not amazing, but the potential to overcome a late game Viking player who still has a Berserk-army left over is much improved then!
Great work, I would love to see the same thing with jaguar warrior!
It's also worth noting that Berserkergang has since been worked directly into the Elite Upgrade (with no increase in cost) and replaced with another UT that boosts Archers, so they're now even better than they used to be in terms of Upgrade Time/Resources.
Love these analyses. I did not expect Zerks to be so good against Frank Paladins.
Two Elite Zerks beat a Frank Paladin, theyre crazy strong. WHile u might argue just use Pikes, Zerks are much stronger at pushing fortified bases and raiding.
@@dirkauditore8413 The versatility is impressive. I can see this being a big surprise for many players. It'll be interesting to see how Vikings do over time in ranked play.
a really big diffrence between swordsmen and Berserks is the time to full power.
assuming you have more than 1 castle (which is proably a given if you contemplate going Berserks anyway) you can upgrade all the important techs simultaniously while the Champ upgrades need to be researched consecutively. these are 5 minutes of your life you never get back. so they are faster in more than one way
That's true, but that means floating a large amount of resources prior to starting the upgrades.
We need a moonwalking scout as a screensaver too
me as a German always thinks that Berserkergang means "Walking like a Berserker" (gang von gehen) and not the modern day street gang
You're right, iirc it *is* meant to be something along the lines of 'Tread of the Bear-Shirt'.
The main application I think people fail to mention regarding berserk regeneration is that it helps them retreat. We're talking about a raiding unit that, otherwise, isn't very adapted to raiding. The regen lets a handful of berserks run all the way back home from a raid WHILE being pursued by knights and likely only lose a couple units.
Thanks for another great video SoTL ! 🙏😊
I can only play AoE2 Age of Kings, but have hardly ever played Vikings and have NEVER made a Berserk unit. So, in the first 30 seconds, you taught me something new today ! 👍😇
M 🦘🏏😎
Age of Kings in 2021? Why that? Why not AoE 2 HD which has much better civ balance or AoE 2: Definitive Edition which is even better balanced. (?)
@@akaMaddy Why?
Because my computer isn't powerful enough to play either.
That's why.
@@markdowse3572 Sorry if that sounded ignorant, im just really surprised by players who still play AoK and not the Conquerors expansion which is already a nice improvement over AoK. I think your pc should be able to run AoE 2 HD, because the only 'big' difference to original AoE 2 is that you can play with slightly higher resolution, but the graphics are still like 99% the same. And again, HD has better balance, less bugs, more civilisations etc. I'd give it a go unless you already have and it didnt work. 🙂
@@akaMaddy Thanks, but I can't afford it.
I am unemployed. No money.
@@markdowse3572 Sorry to hear that. 🙁 You have a steam-account yes? If so, do you mind sharing your username?
Due to rounding difference, the new Elite Berserk has -1 HP (74) compared to before (75). Rounding off difference between the new flat +20% HP and the older staggered +10/15/20% that is.
Berserk are always good even in the old days.
I love to training them when i am vikings
BTW,my dude could you plz do the Burgundian civ overview?
I am kinda wanna learn more about this cive since i bought the dlc recently.
And good job Nice video bro
Ok after years you are gonna still discuss about it, nice
Pls revisit this. Need your mad math skills now with free berserkergang and compare w gambesons
I miss the intro song.
Til bardaga!
Altilagi!
I haven't played much since the patch. I love the new berserks but I do worry that the unit may overall suffer in imperial with the lack of thumb ring skirmishers. Zerk + skirm was the composition
Can’t wait for the Burgundian review
I'm so glad infantry have been buffed!
Hey Law, Spirit of the Guys here
Long Swordsman, bring on the monks for healing.
Berserker: Monks? You misspelled mead.
Perfect video. Thanks, SotL!
I feel it's time for them to add in a new look for Berserkergang upgraded Berserks, looks more beefy and badass besides showing the upgrade.
There's a Berserkergang technology in Age of Mythology!
Quite fitting as well since AoM features the Ulfsark, which is the 'wolf-shirt' counterpart to the Berserker's 'bear-shirt' sort of apparel.
Sees berserk... hears "HAI OHHHHH"
Definitely the one unit I never ever felt like needed buffing, but I'm not complaining. The vikings are amongst my favourite civs (and not only because I happen to be a longhaired, longbearded swede myself). The (elite) berserk is probably my favourite infantry unit, combining speed, attack, building destruction and the added bonus of self-healing. Their ability to tear down buildings is second to none, you almost don't need siege when raiding with them.
To be fair, only castle age berserks are significantly stronger now, which makes sense considering they are more expensive than longswords but only had the selfhealing advantage where as attack and hp were pretty much identical. In imperial age, elite berserks are the same as before except -1 hp.
@@akaMaddy Don't forget the speed. And the beards.
but what about elephants? also woad raiders feel like they could use some umph
They received said umph
Viking remake incoming, I'm so ready for this
Do I smell an updated overview?
I think it would be cool for you to talk about your database and how you use multiple coding languages (I’m assuming SQL and Python) to create this product.
Samantha loves you more than anyone out here
One thing you missed about the Zerks' stats is the attack animation which boosts the morale and increases their efficiency during combat.
Seriously, this cannot be underestimated
I'm a viking main and this makes me happy
Just remembered that in the OP civ matchup the infantry civ won.....
So what I'm getting from this video is that berserker+skirms would be a good combo to cover each units weaknesses? Is this impression right?
How good would it be, if Infantry Uniques also benefitted from supplies?
@Spirit of The Law
Question: Does the Berserk healing stack with being garrisoned?
Yes. Check out the Viking civ overview.
@@jarkkovahamaa7272 Thank you for your reply!
Even after these long and long patches, all infantry units (including uu) are still not used in most situations. I think the dev team just gives some upgrades free, or let them splash damage the building (arson fits well here!). Or should find a way to get them into the Spear-crossbow-knight formula.
I'd say make the Militia line move faster, same base speed as archers. Maybe give them 1 extra pierce armor too. And maybe make some Infantry UU available at the Barracks upon reaching castle age. Though you'd still need a castle for the Elite upgrade and the unique techs.
@@dirkauditore8413 It will probably have only a limited impact. Currently, swordman line is unilaterally attacked by an archer and has a lower riding ability than an archer or light cav. What they can do is that light cavally can do better, faster, and more efficiently. I think we need to give swordman more aggressive role.
Plenty of people have tried to appeal to the devs about it, but they don't seem to care. I haven't touched DE in months now after I became bored of the archer/cav meta.
@@Jacks_Suffocating_Nihilism Exactly. Slight discouts on infantry UU's won't cut it. . There need to be RADICAL changes to make infantry just as viable as archers and caav. Giving infantry extra movement speed and pierce armor is a start.
@@dirkauditore8413 Disagree with a blanket speed boost, but they absolutely need to be made either hardier or cheaper to compete with ranged attack and mobility. I suggested giving the militia line +1P, +10HP, and a large building attack bonus starting in Feudal.
It would make them viable leading into Castle, which is where they really struggle, and would be a nice means to punish passive play which is currently far too strong.
10 hours clip of Skirmisher attacking Berserker when?
Honest question: Who' uses a screensaver in 2021?
not sure if it's such a good idea to make them even better than frank paladins (in terms of resources)! those who are typically good with knights suck with crossbows. should i know fight elite berserks with frigging crossbows or what? sure, handcannon could work, but they are expensive, slow, easy to kill and the chemistry tech takes forever.
There was a bit of a weird jump in the video when talking about chieftains vs. knights.
Don't think the upgrade cost truly is an issue as especially Beserkergang is just a nice bonus that's worth it when you're already swimming in rescources, but not neededto make the unit strong. The castle age buff is so huge that you might very well be able to overwhelm the enemy by swarming them with berserks, not even needing the berserk upgrade in early imp and rather creating 20 more of them for the same cost. Or just staying in castle age for a long while, destroying them in that age.
Try counter berserk + arb/skirm
Given the gold cost (of both unit and techs it needs) and ranged weakness - skirms seem like a very good pairing, no? And it leaves U with more gold for siege and/or prolonged berserk flood if the enemy goes into cav
Glad to see infantry getting buffs in general. Meta being so dominated by knights and archers is getting boring.
I know right. I feel infantry and cavalry civs are given more important than Archer civs. Mayans were my favourite civ until they changed the unique tech to "buff" skirms.
So the viking special unit is great for raiding? Not really surprised XD
AoE2 content YESSSS!!
I miss the old intro
Great hit and run raiding unit! Plenty of speed and damage to quickly chase down villagers and get out to heal.
I would be interested to see a Vikings vs Goth Flood comparison. I wonder if they are strong enough to win with equal resources, but also how many castles you need to be able to spam enough units to win. Actually I would love to see how all melee infantry units fair against Goth flood, I wonder which civ is the best against that? Japanese maybe?
something I just discovered. that the tracking image looks like a horse has walked there. however, it does not answer the biggest question, when will vikings in aoe2 get Halberdiers?
Never. The combo of the Viking economy powering the Halb+Arb+Ram push in Early Imp is deemed to be too powerful. The chances are even less since they added Cheiftains and then extended it to all infantry including the Spearman-line. The extra HP Pikes with Chieftains are the Viking substitute for Halbs.
Raaadidaaa!
How about Elite Berserks vs Elite Boyars ?
Skirm: Why won't you die!
Berserk: Nanomachines, son!
Would love a fun video on how you would incorporate units from aoe1 and aom into aoe2 as unique units or new generic units. For example hoplites might be a unique non trash anti cav unit, like a more mobile Teutonic knight with a cav bonus.
They need to give them huge two handed swords and add an obnoxious clang sound when they hit things
I wish he had done a visual speed comparison to see how good it is compared to swordsman and compared to knights for repositioning.
He did show the tail end of a clip at about 1:40 from a previous video where he did such a test. Spoiler, the Beserker smokes the LSM
Guess you could say they are the kings of infantry
Teutonic Knights will be king, next!... after they catch up.
the vi-kings?
sugestion: A video to investigate the "real eco bonus" of incas. They are performing so good analisyng data (even better than aztecs). Many small bonus together really make them great? how to compare to other civis? (free 100 food, less time and resources building houses, farms building faster...
I lick toes at night is a God damn legend
My problem with infantry UU is that they sorta melt together. Like yeah you got ones that stand out like husk or samurai or jag. But the rest are just the same. Idk what's the difference between woad raiders and berserks is. They both run fast too
Though Woad Raiders move faster and have a shorter creation time, Berserks are stronger overall against most infantry (except jaguars, samurai, teutonic knights and maybe obuch) and even more cavalry units, (especially knights, light cav, not cataphracts of course) thanks to the chieftain upgrade.
Zerks are good vs melee units, especially cavalry. Woads are more of a raiding unit, and due to their high speed and high HP I'd say they can surround archers rather quickly.
I think its an amazing all around unit somewhat comparable to byzantine cataphract and its immunity to spears. The champion only seems healthier because its a viking champion. Many infantry focused civ's will beat them in a straight fight using a unique unit or a special tech such as goth cheaper units or Aztec +4 attack. However it will still do better vs archers or knights than nearly any and if you're considering both its probably the best.
They heal inside of siege correct? I can see a siege tower/berserker strat working decently.
Spirit of the Law, could you make a video examining all the different counters to cavalry in comparison to each other?
You analysis while superb as usual missed one important factor which is them simply looking cool.
Ahhh, 'cool' would be a subjective view rather than an objective (analytical) one...... 😁
@@markdowse3572 It's usually subjective but sometimes it's objective. Show me someone who doesn't think that Teutonic Knights are cool. And Berserks are the same.
I think berserks could use +1 pierce armor to see more play
Dude'I lick toes at night' is the real MVP XD
Would Cavalry Archers be a viable option for support to keep up with the faster movement, or are crossbows just a better overall pairing even if they might fall behind a little?
In a teamgame absolutely it could work, but 1v1 Vikings probably don't want to make CA 11
Vikings get the worst CAs in the game. No Heavy Cav Archer, no Thumb Ring and Parthian Tactics, no Bloodlines, no Husbandry. At least they get Bracer and Ring Archer Armor though.
Cav archers with Vikings?
May as well make Spanish archers
@@jefffinkbonner9551 Oh yeah, they'd be about as useful as guys on bicycles with nerf guns, but at least for raiding they'd keep up a little better, and if you're not taking a direct fight the negatives might not show as bad.
On several occasions, I asked in twitch chat pro players what do they think will make infantry a viable option just as archers and knights, but so far none of them gave me a straight answer. We probably need to see a lot more cost reduction for the upgrades or giving them a special ability. I mean, cavalry is fast and mobile, archers have range, but what can we add to infantry to give it a niche strategy advantage? Maybe more damage against villagers and economy building??
@@akaMaddy Actually, that's a sick idea! All civs should be like the goths - infantry spam, but maybe not in that same crazy levels of intensity.
I'd say lower their cost even more, and give them more speed + pierce armor. Their strength should lie in their numbers
@@tkzsfen I dont want to just make infantry spammable but more attractive to use for players. Having infantry make more damage vs buildings than knights & archers (like you mentioned) could also be a good idea.
THEY ARE AWESOME and now i watch the video.