Berserkers need to be in on day 1 without discs, so rogues finally have a class that's more worthless than them
You're right, berserkers are pretty fucking boring from 1-50. They're essentially warriors with lower AC and no taunt (though their snare ability functions as snap aggro and I had no trouble tanking 1-75 or so as a zerk).
In the case of beastlords, having them in at the start would be fun because it'd give the non-Vah races some use. We'd see a lot more Wood Elf beastlords, Ogres, etc, maybe even some Barbarian beastlords (those exist right?)
90% of beastlords in the later game are Vah because they go hand-in-hand. So beastlord available at the start without Vah would be a change of pace, not unlike unlocking Gnome SK or Halfling Ranger early, or whatever the combinations are that go in later. Just gives people more choices to try something new and increases the appeal of starting over again.
Berserkers on the other hand, yeah, it'd be cool to have them in at the start so that people who want to play them would be able to do it from the get-go instead of waiting for GoD to play (like I had to do on Phinny). However it's very clear that, unlike beastlords, they weren't designed with the 1-50 game in mind. Truth be told they're kind of a minimal-effort class at the point they were introduced (level 65). All of their major abilities and skills are like, 61-65 with a few discs in the 50's and snare/stun abilities earlier. They were so top-heavy at creation that level 1-50 (really, 1-60) are just a formality they have to go through. They don't have the skill upgrade progression that other classes have through those levels. They probably should have just started at 51 and been a Heroic Class ala WoW's DKs because it's pretty clear the game just has nothing for them before that. And without rogue/monk utility, I can't see any real reason for anyone to start a berserker in classic unless that's the main they're dead-set on for later and they don't want to bother leveling up multiple classes.
All of that said, the option should still be there at the start. Beastlord (including wood elf), berserker, any combinations added later like gnome knights.
