2: Fewer one trick ponies spamming lag and hoping the RNG gods are smiling.

Sounds like a valid tactic to me. It's no different than sitting at a pit with a bard waiting on a wounded opponent to word in. It's a tactic that's cheap and very effective.

I don't see the problem with deathblow. Deathblow can be stopped by a skill that every single character on the whole entire mud gets. Look up my logs of me as a druid with roughly 600 hp, prepped with only vanguard, killing berserkers. If even ONE deathblow had landed in any of my early Yevandr fights, he would have won. But guess what, that never happened because I parried them all.

After all the villagers I've played, I took the berserker path twice, once as Trewyn, and once to try and remember how much fun I had with Trewyn. I can say this with absolute certainty. I will NEVER play a berserker again. It's hard for me to pick anything except scout. Even when my roles go strongly in favor of defender, I just want to go scout.