In recent years Zerking became trivial in every mainstream boss, with the exception of Auf Haven. I want to first explain why it happened, and then suggest solutions. There are two factors that currently let DRKs fully autopot most content: 1) Around 4 years ago there was an update that made autopot consume potions endlessly until it reaches the set HP threshold. This solution was meant to fix existing bugs, such as autopot not working in Horntail preheads (when standing on the edge of the platform) and autopot not triggering when acps and pet food were clicked at the same time. It was confirmed this change was made to solve those issues here: https://royals.ms/forum/threads/the-new-autopot-change.212007/#post-1265080 Before this change, autopot only triggered once. 2) W. Def was introduced in multiple forms, such as scrolled Auf Helms, Balrog shoulder pads and new scrolls. With more W. Def available, it was made possible to keep Zerk HP by using Barbarian Elixirs only, without needing any extra manual pots. It helped reducing all boss damage to below 13.5k. You just set your autopot to 13.5k HP, and you can play as if you were a Hero. This made DRK better than Hero in every way, because there is no added difficulty to the class. Spoiler: Demonstration of the full autopot method This problem can be further highlighted in future updates, because buffing it to be one of the stronger classes needs to come at the cost of difficulty. I hope this will be addressed before the full balance patch, because I feel like this problem will be much more apparent after it. It's also problematic how this autopot setup is ping dependant. Some people who have laggy internet or very high ping can't use this setup, and we obviously don't want different ping players to be forced to use different pot setups. I will suggest multiple solutions, in order of the most preferred one in my eyes to the least preferred. These solutions should not be implemented at the same time, but I suggest you only pick one of them. Solution 1 - fix autopot: This is the preferred solution, because it's the only solution that will make people manual pot more than just once and will encourage people to use multiple types of potions. If it's possible, I'd like staff to tackle the old autopot bug again and find a way to still only make it trigger once, while not getting bugged in HT preheads and while using pet food. If that's not possible, it would also be good if autopot could trigger twice instead of once. Personally, I prefer the old autopot bug over forcing autopot to repeat infinitely, because deaths are still avoidable if you pay attention to your HP bar, but I understand if staff do not want to reintroduce an old bug. Solution 2 - remove W. Def sources: If solution 1 is not possible in any way, the next best solution would be to remove W. Def from certain sources. I'd suggest removing W. Def from Balrog shoulder pad and from Hex of the Beholder. You could swap the W. Def on shoulder to HP or to extra M. Def, and to speed/jump on Hex of the Beholder for example. I would not suggest removing W. Def from HTP or from the new scroll instead, because Def is a major part of their identity. Those new W. Def sources made it so there is no downside to using the full autopot Zerk method, because before they were introduced players had to swap from MoN to HTP and sacrifice some damage. With this soltion, if you do choose to use your MoN, you will have to manual pot, but only once every hit. This solution is less preferred because it still does not introduce much difficulty, but it's better than nothing. Solution 3 - rework certain HP potions: Alternatively, you could rework some potions, so there won't be any available potions between 1k and 1.5k HP. Since autopot can be set to 13.5k HP, 1k - 1.5k HP potions can be used to pot safely to between 13.5k to 15k HP. Anything below that will pot you too slow and you can die, anything above that will overheal you. *It's worth mentioning that if you are a European player with extremely low ping, you can even use 1k HP pots to do this, which is why I would prefer this solution the least. If any of you have other suggestions feel free to comment!
It seems like this is just for 'how a DK is supposed to be played.' Considering class balance, we need to buff DK(maybe in damage) to align with this kind of difficulty. Currently DK isn't strong enough to justify such complex mechanics. As my friend always says “why not hero?”
Yes and no. Currently, I don't think it's great that it's DRK > Hero in terms of damage, but DRK = Hero in terms of difficulty. But also, I do understand why it's not good for DRK to be the most difficult class when it's not strong in the meta in general. My point is that manual potting is a part of DRK's identity, and it should be a thing again when the balance patch happens, which is confirmed to be soon. Like I said, this issue is minor now, but it should be a lot more apparent after the balance patch.
