Okay so I’ll draft something more detailed later on, but I think I have some general directions and principles.
Firstly, I think preserving the melee fantasy of the strength class is of the utmost importance. I do not want Mage 3.0. If that means berserkers cant enjoy fighting krakens, then so be it, I guess they have to resort to cannonfist. But, we can still help them out in other areas, such as fighting Allanon & dragons, we just have to make it work while keeping strength’s melee focused identity. (axe-slash and cannonfist existing as options are fine, but they shouldn’t be the “main thing”)
Secondly, there needs to be more incentive to strength classes engaging in melee combat. Currently, the risk to reward ratio is just off: you’re risking your life fighting melee for what, less damage than the mage sitting across the screen? Somehow, we need to achieve 3 very important things: 1) allow strength classes to closer the gap against mobile enemies 2) enhance their survivability at close range 3) reward them for not only being, but staying at melee range.
Thirdly, strength currently doesn’t really fulfill the melee fantasy that well. You’d pick berserker imagining yourself as some “anime martial arts master”, but then you realize you are less mobile than pretty much every other class in the game, and most of your attacks are super clunky. That just sucks, so I believe strength should be given the most combat mobility of all stats. (you see this in other games as well. Ranged characters by default have a huge advantage, and melees often make up for it with mobility)