I was going to put this as a Santa Zulg request, for which I'll add my thanks to all the others btw, it's very cool. Only thing is, I'm not totally sure I want it, so I thought I'd lob it up here for discussion.

People are always moaning about ragers being able to to beat their unprepped fighting classes. To be honest having played a few invokers, offensive shifters etc the list of things that will spank a melee type that doesn't prep is a pretty long one, but i can see what they mean a little, the whole idea of Thera's toughest warriors unleashing their full might to beat down a melee type when it's not last ditch effort is a little bit meh.

So my idea as I had it was thus. Make bloodthirst slightly more epic, by changing the haste affect it gives to a full on metabolic quickening affect, with all its glory and drawbacks. We'll start off with the plus points, and then move onto the minus points which are why I didn't lob it straight on Santa Zulg.

On the plus side, it makes calling bloodthirst a far more mixed bag. If you are facing a maledictor, or anyone that can cause bleeding for that matter, you have to really think if you want to take that enhanced bleeding once the fight is done. It would hopefully be pretty easy to code as it seems like a pretty straightforward swap. It also seems to fit fairly well in the rager theme, the whole burst of adrenaline kicking in and all that.

Sounds pretty good so far doesn't it? But as you think about it a few drawbacks do come to mind, both strengthening and weakening the ragers side, but worth considering. Some of this may be based on badly observed "facts" but if thats the case feel free to correct me.

Firstly metabolic quickening is, apart from the bleeding, better than haste. This adds to the whole can of worms of it being called, if you were stomped by a rager calling haste before, you'll be stomped worse, this goes double for multiple ragers at onece, in raid situations.
Secondly, following on nicely, the only real drawback for the rager is the bleeding, if you dont have a way to make them bleed you are even more out of luck than you were before. Worse still, if memory serves, once you hit a decent level, poultice will stop bleeding. A berserker with a defender or leader nearby just becomes that much more potent.
An the downside for the rager, one of his enemies in particular gets more potent. Certain non stop rager players have complained that the only way they can stand a chance of beating an ABS'ed shifter is to thirst. Throw in the sheer volume of shifters that can cause bleeding, and this horrible situation may well get worse.

I think that I'm starting to ramble so I'll wrap that section up there. Summary, some good some bad, but does the good outweight the bad? It makes calling thirst against physical maledictors who used to be mostly crippled by it a very mixed bag, but if you are an axe spec, you are probably cursing my very name and lineage right now.

There is an alternate, or perhaps supplemental plan that would also hopefully be easyish to code, and fits in with the theme as well. On the off chance that there is a berserker about that hasn't taken the macho flaw, add that little affect to the whole bundle that is thirst when it is up. It should be just a little harder to flee when you are hungering for blood.

Best regards and Merry Christmas
Dis