Do people use Berserkers these days?

[Anskiy]

I can't help but feel like their use cases have been narrowed sharply from CoM 1. Sure, they're still excellent at fighting most monsters in melee, and so are great at taking lairs, but their unlock time compares unfavorably to things like sprites, cavalry with phantom warrior/confusion spam, draconian bowmen, or even buffed horsebowmen. And losing some relatively easy lairs and nodes to waiting for them always feels bad. Not to mention, even with buffs, there's lots of things that can kill them easily. Naga/Ghoul poison, Confusion, Possession or Black Sleep with Black Prayer, Warp Creature, the list goes on and on... It seems like the only viable way to use them is by taking Life books with some Sorcery, and then throwing Bless, Resist Magic, and a whole bevy of Life buffs on top, and even then, they're too vulnerable to justify the investment. Gladiators and Spellserkers both seem like far better choices for the race.

[Arnuz]

They were never meant to fight. They are there to have ridiculous strategic strength, buffed, which makes you win diplomacy and prevents attacks on cities and berserker stacks.

[Seravy]

Berserkers are mostly meant for conquering other players, not lairs. Yes, they are the most effective if you have Life or Sorcery buffs but also work well against opponents who can't target resistance, especially if you can protect them from ranged attacks or find some targets defended by melee units only.
And ofc their effect on diplomacy and the AI's willingness to attack them can be good too.

[WhiteMage]

I never used them in the past. But in my current game I use them to take lairs and to attack the AI wizard over node where both of us have difficulty casting spells.

[martinl_00]

It is unfortunate that berserkers have so many weaknesses that their strength has effectively become a joke.

[WhiteMage]

It is unfortunate that berserkers have so many weaknesses that their strength has effectively become a joke.

Maybe increasing them to speed 4 would be the way to tune this.

[Seravy]

As far as I remember, Berserkers were the single most tested and adjusted unit in the entire game so I prefer to keep them as is. That was many years ago though, but I doubt the new spells really changed them for the worse? As far as common and uncommon spells go, there weren't all that many significant changes, and rares shouldn't be too relevant for an early to midgame rush unit.

[tehemperorer]

Life Berserkers super annoying and hard/costly to beat as Death Wizard.