Berserker Guide ver. 1.2
Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:43 pm
Berserker went through some pretty heavy changes in 1.2, making some of the stuff in the old Berserker guide no longer applicable, so having run the new berserker and liking it a fair bit better than the old version, I decided to put this guide together. Thanks go to Torokasi for making the old one.
Disclaimer: I don't pretend to have anywhere close to perfect knowledge of the game, as such I expect and welcome constructive criticisms and additions.
To do: AM probably, other global categories probably.
Race Selection:
Cornac: The main draws are the extra category point and faster levelling, neither of which are terribly important unless you're looking to go pal around with the Zigurites. It's not a particularly bad choice, but not a stellar one either.
Higher: Has arguably less to offer than Cornac does here, though one could get milage out of both the regen and Highborn's Bloom.
Shalore: The start isn't the greatest thing in the world, but imagine if you will Timeless in conjunction with Unstoppable. The crit booster and Dex-scaling haste are both good as well, making this a very good choice.
Thalore: Hard to argue with +6.5% allres, and even if you don't build willpower you can get some milage out of the first skill. Extra saves are icing.
Halfling: Berserkers like the extra crit from Luck of the Little Folk and the other talents are something at least, as is 12 HP. It's worth a look, even if they don't necessarily grab you like elfzerkers do.
Dwarf: 12 HP here as well, and Power is Money and the armor booster can be handy.
Skeleton: Levels slow as mossasses and doesn't get infusions, which is something of a blow. If you can get past that though the racials give you a fair amount to like.
Ghoul: Slow on a melee class is something I'm not a fan of, but on the other hand that is a tremendous amount of HP. It can work, just don't complain to me if you find the speed awful.
Yeek: Well berserker lifemod cancels out yeek HP plot! Global speed bonus and confuse res are of course nice, have fun getting one going though.
Stat Distribution:
Strength: Unless you're doing something incredibly weird this is your unquestionable primary stat.
Dexterity: Impacts the accuracy boost from Berserker Rage and boosts Precise Strikes, so it's not a bad idea to consider maxing.
Constitution: You all know the deal, 59 post-equipment for Thick Skin Lv5. Beyond that, you have +3 lifemod and Unstoppable, you'll live if you don't max this, but having more is nice for Vitality/Unflinching Resolve/Relentless Fury.
Magic: No.
Willpower: Extra stamina is nice, as is mindpower for the AM crowd, but your priorities are likely calling you elsewhere.
Cunning: Can wait but should probably get some level of investment. You don't really multi-hit and you don't have GWF, so you're looking for extra crit if nothing else.
Class Talents:
Technique/Two-handed Assault (unlocked, 1.3):
Stunning Blow (8 Sta, 6 CD): Your bread-and-butter stun skill. Lv3 in it gives you six turns of stun so that's more or less all you need if you care about duration. If you don't, there's not much reason to invest past the first point.
Fearless Cleave (16 Sta, no CD): Serves as a low-grade distance closer with a bit of crowd control baked in, which is nice since you're not as mobile as your sword-and-board cousin the bulwark. Damage kind of sucks if you don't move though and the scaling isn't brilliant.
Death Dance (30 Sta, 10 CD): Functions largely as it used to with the addition of causing bleeding over five turns at Lv3, giving it some synergy with Bloody Butcher. Getting it up to Lv3 can wait until you get that skill, though.
Execution (25 Sta, 8 CD): Auto-crit skill that deals extra damage the lower the target is on life. Also levelling it up doesn't cause a massive stamina drain. Not a bad button thanks to the auto-crit.
Technique/Berserker's Strength (unlocked, 1.3):
Warshout (30 Sta, 18 CD): Mass confuse! Gets pretty big if you level it up, not really a whole lot to say about it other than it's an effective skill.
Berserker Rage (20 Sta sustain, 10 CD): The old Berserker skill, with the defense/armor penalty replaced with 2% mHP/turn loss when an enemy is in sight and a crit boost based on how much life you're missing. A bit pyschologically unappealing in my opinion but so long as you can keep it from handing you embarrasing deaths it's a very helpful skill. It's also instant, so you can just turn it off when you don't want it killing you. Should be considered something of a priority.
Shattering Blow (12 Sta, 13-8 CD): Multiplier is kind of crappy and neither armor nor saves should be a large concern for you. Being able to break damage shields is nice though and it *is* another button, and it's on the way to...
Relentless Fury (25 CD): This skill. So this is kind of like Second Wind except it's only useable when you're low on stamina and it gives you stamina over a bunch of turns instead of all at once but it also boosts your attack speed while it's doing that. So it's not really like Second Wind but still worth a look since it's pretty easy for you to get low on stamina.
Technique/Combat Techniques (unlocked, 1.3):
Rush (22 Sta, 34-18 CD): Rush at 1.3 mastery, Lv4 gets you 10 range so you can leave it there unless you want to shave a couple turns off the cooldown.
Precise Strikes (30 Sta sustain, 30 CD): If you can live with the penalty to attack speed (or make up for it somehow), the boost to accuracy and particularly crit rate is helpful. Can wait until you get enough Dex for it to be worth it, but consider 5ing this.
Perfect Strike (10 Sta, 25 CD): Unless you desperately need a way around invisibility, you don't really need to use this. Put a point into it to get Blinding Speed and move on.
Blinding Speed (25 Sta, 55 CD): Five-turn haste is nice. Certainly worth coming here for if you've the points to spare.
Technique/Combat Veteran (unlocked, 1.3):
Quick Recovery (passive): Stamina management aid, level of investment to taste.
Fast Metabolism (passive): Not great on scaling, but it can help a bit. Level of investment to taste.
Spell Shield (passive): Means of trying to keep Impending Doom/Curse of Death off, level of investment to taste.
Unending Frenzy (passive): No.
Technique/Bloodthirst (locked, Lv10+, 1.2):
Mortal Terror (passive): Have a free critboost! Also dazing on big hits is nice. Can wait a bit but 5 it.
Bloodbath (passive): Stacking health/stamina regen on crits is pretty great for you. Max HP buff is pretty nice as well. 5 it when you get a sufficiently good crit rate going.
Bloody Butcher (passive): No strings attached physpower boost is kind of overkill, but it also reduces physical resistance on bleeding enemies, which should keep you interested.
Unstoppable (120 Sta, 45 CD): Some day someone should figure out what the best talent in the game is. Seven turns of not dying with a potentially full heal at the end of it is well and truly worth the price of entry and maxing this should be a priority.
Technique/Warcries (locked, Lv10+, 1.3):
Shattering Shout (20 Sta, 7 CD): Good area and reasonable CD. Damage scales decently though not wonderfully with Str, and destroys projectiles at Lv5. At least consider it if you're here.
Second Wind (50 CD): Restores a good percentage of your stamina, which is pretty nice for managing it.
Battle Shout (40 Sta, 30 CD): Mostly serves as a weaker healing/shielding thing if you've been stacking healmod. Doesn't really scale well, so if you care it's not really worth more than a point.
Battle Cry (40 Sta, 30 CD): Yeah lowering enemy defense really isn't worth this. You have good accuracy thanks to Berserker Rage (and Precise Strikes if you're using that). You're going to hit, on average. It does kill evasion/concealment bonuses, however, so if you're looking for a way around that...
Technique/Superiority (locked, Lv10+, 1.3):
Juggernaut (50 Sta, 40 CD): Unlike Bulwarks, your armor isn't likely to be particularly huge, so you can certainly get some milage out of this. Getting hit with crits less is also nice.
Onslaught (10 Sta sustain, 10 CD): I don't really understand the point of this talent. Knockback is questionable for melee-based characters and this has a per-turn stamina drain attached, but at least the costs are something of a joke now and the first level can work with Fearless Cleave.
Battle Call (30 Sta, 10 CD): Getting jerkholes into your face so you can kill them is pretty nice, though. Particularly for a Death Dance.
Shattering Impact (40 Sta sustain, 30 CD): Adding some area damage to your bumps/single target skills is certainly nice considering berserker weapon damage, even if it's not as great for you as it used to be.
Technique/Shield Defense (locked, 0.9):
Who on earth would play a Berserker like a Bulwark?
Technique/Archery Training (locked, 1.1):
9 range berserkers. (Does Berserker Rage even work with a bow?)
Cunning/Dirty Fighting (locked, 1.0):
Cripple is great, and against the stun vulnerable the tree can otherwise serve, but you should ask yourself if it's worth the category point.
Generic Talents:
Technique/Combat Training (unlocked, 1.3):
Thick Skin (passive): It's Thick Skin, it gets 5'd eventually by 99% of everyone I'm sure.
Armor Training (passive): Armor is only as good as how much Armor Hardiness lets it cover, but armor isn't something you're incredible at so if you're tight on generics you can make do with 3 or even leaving it at 1.
Combat Accuracy (passive): You can pretty easily get enough accuracy to make do with only a couple of points here. You *can* 5 it for overkill accuracy bonuses if you want but do everything else you need to do first.
Weapons Mastery (passive): Chances are you're using a conventional two-hander, so yeah.
Dagger Mastery (passive): No.
Technique/Conditioning (unlocked, 1.3):
Vitality (passive): Cut poison/disease duration by potentially more than half and heal a portion of your maximum life over time when knocked below 50%? Okay sure.
Unflinching Resolve (passive): Con-scaling chance to shrug off a grab bag of potentially unpleasant status? Sign me up. Lv4 at 1.3 mastery gets you everything on the list, I believe, so the only reason to 5 it is for the extra 3% or so chance.
Daunting Prescence (20 Sta sustain, 8 CD): Eh. Doesn't scale as well as you'd like all things considered, and since it's not required for Unflinching Resolve anymore you can ignore it completely.
Adrenaline Surge (24 CD): It's there if you want it, but you can probably make do without.
Cunning/Survival (unlocked, 1.0):
Heightened Senses (passive): Stick a point here and move on if you care about either of the next two here. If you don't, ignore it.
Charms Mastery (passive): Nice to grab and max eventually, but only that.
Piercing Sight (passive): Spotting invisible jerkholes more easily is nice, but again, it's only that.
Evasion (30 CD): Not particularly careworthy in my opinion, but you can put some spare points here if you want.
Technique/Field Control (locked, 1.0):
Track and Slow Motion aren't bad, but unless you're desperate they're not worth spending a category point over
Prodigies:
This is mainly stuff I feel like commenting on, not necessarily what's good, so don't worry if something's left out or if something is here.
Flexible Combat: You have the stats to make good use of the extra punches, so you may as well go for it.
I Can Carry the World!: Likely not as much extra damage as Flexible Combat on average, but you certainly can take both.
Legacy of the Naloren: Mostly mentioning this because I'm not sure how the trident holds up to other options these days, not really having ever taken it, but I hear it's pretty good. Also according to grobblewobble, the prodigy adds five levels to Exotic Weapon Mastery as opposed to setting it to 5, so if you can grab levels from escorts (or even just one and level it from there)...
Irresistable Sun: If you're patient enough to beat up on a training dummy with a fire/light damage weapon, then getting dudes in close is pretty welcome.
Superpower: Extra mindpower based off strength and extra damage based of willpower. Non-zigurites need not apply.
Windblade: Grab a couple of daggers and ram into a training dummy for a minute or two. Now enjoy your radius 4 320% weapon attack running off of berserker weapon damage, citizen. Thanks to thomas for pointing this out. EDIT: Jurriann points out that using the training dummy to get this doesn't work as of 1.2.4
Never Stop Running: Can get you to where you need to be and the stamina cost is something you can manage.
Draconic Will: Great in conjunction with Timeless, and other races can make use of it as well.
Disclaimer: I don't pretend to have anywhere close to perfect knowledge of the game, as such I expect and welcome constructive criticisms and additions.
To do: AM probably, other global categories probably.
Race Selection:
Cornac: The main draws are the extra category point and faster levelling, neither of which are terribly important unless you're looking to go pal around with the Zigurites. It's not a particularly bad choice, but not a stellar one either.
Higher: Has arguably less to offer than Cornac does here, though one could get milage out of both the regen and Highborn's Bloom.
Shalore: The start isn't the greatest thing in the world, but imagine if you will Timeless in conjunction with Unstoppable. The crit booster and Dex-scaling haste are both good as well, making this a very good choice.
Thalore: Hard to argue with +6.5% allres, and even if you don't build willpower you can get some milage out of the first skill. Extra saves are icing.
Halfling: Berserkers like the extra crit from Luck of the Little Folk and the other talents are something at least, as is 12 HP. It's worth a look, even if they don't necessarily grab you like elfzerkers do.
Dwarf: 12 HP here as well, and Power is Money and the armor booster can be handy.
Skeleton: Levels slow as mossasses and doesn't get infusions, which is something of a blow. If you can get past that though the racials give you a fair amount to like.
Ghoul: Slow on a melee class is something I'm not a fan of, but on the other hand that is a tremendous amount of HP. It can work, just don't complain to me if you find the speed awful.
Yeek: Well berserker lifemod cancels out yeek HP plot! Global speed bonus and confuse res are of course nice, have fun getting one going though.
Stat Distribution:
Strength: Unless you're doing something incredibly weird this is your unquestionable primary stat.
Dexterity: Impacts the accuracy boost from Berserker Rage and boosts Precise Strikes, so it's not a bad idea to consider maxing.
Constitution: You all know the deal, 59 post-equipment for Thick Skin Lv5. Beyond that, you have +3 lifemod and Unstoppable, you'll live if you don't max this, but having more is nice for Vitality/Unflinching Resolve/Relentless Fury.
Magic: No.
Willpower: Extra stamina is nice, as is mindpower for the AM crowd, but your priorities are likely calling you elsewhere.
Cunning: Can wait but should probably get some level of investment. You don't really multi-hit and you don't have GWF, so you're looking for extra crit if nothing else.
Class Talents:
Technique/Two-handed Assault (unlocked, 1.3):
Stunning Blow (8 Sta, 6 CD): Your bread-and-butter stun skill. Lv3 in it gives you six turns of stun so that's more or less all you need if you care about duration. If you don't, there's not much reason to invest past the first point.
Fearless Cleave (16 Sta, no CD): Serves as a low-grade distance closer with a bit of crowd control baked in, which is nice since you're not as mobile as your sword-and-board cousin the bulwark. Damage kind of sucks if you don't move though and the scaling isn't brilliant.
Death Dance (30 Sta, 10 CD): Functions largely as it used to with the addition of causing bleeding over five turns at Lv3, giving it some synergy with Bloody Butcher. Getting it up to Lv3 can wait until you get that skill, though.
Execution (25 Sta, 8 CD): Auto-crit skill that deals extra damage the lower the target is on life. Also levelling it up doesn't cause a massive stamina drain. Not a bad button thanks to the auto-crit.
Technique/Berserker's Strength (unlocked, 1.3):
Warshout (30 Sta, 18 CD): Mass confuse! Gets pretty big if you level it up, not really a whole lot to say about it other than it's an effective skill.
Berserker Rage (20 Sta sustain, 10 CD): The old Berserker skill, with the defense/armor penalty replaced with 2% mHP/turn loss when an enemy is in sight and a crit boost based on how much life you're missing. A bit pyschologically unappealing in my opinion but so long as you can keep it from handing you embarrasing deaths it's a very helpful skill. It's also instant, so you can just turn it off when you don't want it killing you. Should be considered something of a priority.
Shattering Blow (12 Sta, 13-8 CD): Multiplier is kind of crappy and neither armor nor saves should be a large concern for you. Being able to break damage shields is nice though and it *is* another button, and it's on the way to...
Relentless Fury (25 CD): This skill. So this is kind of like Second Wind except it's only useable when you're low on stamina and it gives you stamina over a bunch of turns instead of all at once but it also boosts your attack speed while it's doing that. So it's not really like Second Wind but still worth a look since it's pretty easy for you to get low on stamina.
Technique/Combat Techniques (unlocked, 1.3):
Rush (22 Sta, 34-18 CD): Rush at 1.3 mastery, Lv4 gets you 10 range so you can leave it there unless you want to shave a couple turns off the cooldown.
Precise Strikes (30 Sta sustain, 30 CD): If you can live with the penalty to attack speed (or make up for it somehow), the boost to accuracy and particularly crit rate is helpful. Can wait until you get enough Dex for it to be worth it, but consider 5ing this.
Perfect Strike (10 Sta, 25 CD): Unless you desperately need a way around invisibility, you don't really need to use this. Put a point into it to get Blinding Speed and move on.
Blinding Speed (25 Sta, 55 CD): Five-turn haste is nice. Certainly worth coming here for if you've the points to spare.
Technique/Combat Veteran (unlocked, 1.3):
Quick Recovery (passive): Stamina management aid, level of investment to taste.
Fast Metabolism (passive): Not great on scaling, but it can help a bit. Level of investment to taste.
Spell Shield (passive): Means of trying to keep Impending Doom/Curse of Death off, level of investment to taste.
Unending Frenzy (passive): No.
Technique/Bloodthirst (locked, Lv10+, 1.2):
Mortal Terror (passive): Have a free critboost! Also dazing on big hits is nice. Can wait a bit but 5 it.
Bloodbath (passive): Stacking health/stamina regen on crits is pretty great for you. Max HP buff is pretty nice as well. 5 it when you get a sufficiently good crit rate going.
Bloody Butcher (passive): No strings attached physpower boost is kind of overkill, but it also reduces physical resistance on bleeding enemies, which should keep you interested.
Unstoppable (120 Sta, 45 CD): Some day someone should figure out what the best talent in the game is. Seven turns of not dying with a potentially full heal at the end of it is well and truly worth the price of entry and maxing this should be a priority.
Technique/Warcries (locked, Lv10+, 1.3):
Shattering Shout (20 Sta, 7 CD): Good area and reasonable CD. Damage scales decently though not wonderfully with Str, and destroys projectiles at Lv5. At least consider it if you're here.
Second Wind (50 CD): Restores a good percentage of your stamina, which is pretty nice for managing it.
Battle Shout (40 Sta, 30 CD): Mostly serves as a weaker healing/shielding thing if you've been stacking healmod. Doesn't really scale well, so if you care it's not really worth more than a point.
Battle Cry (40 Sta, 30 CD): Yeah lowering enemy defense really isn't worth this. You have good accuracy thanks to Berserker Rage (and Precise Strikes if you're using that). You're going to hit, on average. It does kill evasion/concealment bonuses, however, so if you're looking for a way around that...
Technique/Superiority (locked, Lv10+, 1.3):
Juggernaut (50 Sta, 40 CD): Unlike Bulwarks, your armor isn't likely to be particularly huge, so you can certainly get some milage out of this. Getting hit with crits less is also nice.
Onslaught (10 Sta sustain, 10 CD): I don't really understand the point of this talent. Knockback is questionable for melee-based characters and this has a per-turn stamina drain attached, but at least the costs are something of a joke now and the first level can work with Fearless Cleave.
Battle Call (30 Sta, 10 CD): Getting jerkholes into your face so you can kill them is pretty nice, though. Particularly for a Death Dance.
Shattering Impact (40 Sta sustain, 30 CD): Adding some area damage to your bumps/single target skills is certainly nice considering berserker weapon damage, even if it's not as great for you as it used to be.
Technique/Shield Defense (locked, 0.9):
Who on earth would play a Berserker like a Bulwark?
Technique/Archery Training (locked, 1.1):
9 range berserkers. (Does Berserker Rage even work with a bow?)
Cunning/Dirty Fighting (locked, 1.0):
Cripple is great, and against the stun vulnerable the tree can otherwise serve, but you should ask yourself if it's worth the category point.
Generic Talents:
Technique/Combat Training (unlocked, 1.3):
Thick Skin (passive): It's Thick Skin, it gets 5'd eventually by 99% of everyone I'm sure.
Armor Training (passive): Armor is only as good as how much Armor Hardiness lets it cover, but armor isn't something you're incredible at so if you're tight on generics you can make do with 3 or even leaving it at 1.
Combat Accuracy (passive): You can pretty easily get enough accuracy to make do with only a couple of points here. You *can* 5 it for overkill accuracy bonuses if you want but do everything else you need to do first.
Weapons Mastery (passive): Chances are you're using a conventional two-hander, so yeah.
Dagger Mastery (passive): No.
Technique/Conditioning (unlocked, 1.3):
Vitality (passive): Cut poison/disease duration by potentially more than half and heal a portion of your maximum life over time when knocked below 50%? Okay sure.
Unflinching Resolve (passive): Con-scaling chance to shrug off a grab bag of potentially unpleasant status? Sign me up. Lv4 at 1.3 mastery gets you everything on the list, I believe, so the only reason to 5 it is for the extra 3% or so chance.
Daunting Prescence (20 Sta sustain, 8 CD): Eh. Doesn't scale as well as you'd like all things considered, and since it's not required for Unflinching Resolve anymore you can ignore it completely.
Adrenaline Surge (24 CD): It's there if you want it, but you can probably make do without.
Cunning/Survival (unlocked, 1.0):
Heightened Senses (passive): Stick a point here and move on if you care about either of the next two here. If you don't, ignore it.
Charms Mastery (passive): Nice to grab and max eventually, but only that.
Piercing Sight (passive): Spotting invisible jerkholes more easily is nice, but again, it's only that.
Evasion (30 CD): Not particularly careworthy in my opinion, but you can put some spare points here if you want.
Technique/Field Control (locked, 1.0):
Track and Slow Motion aren't bad, but unless you're desperate they're not worth spending a category point over
Prodigies:
This is mainly stuff I feel like commenting on, not necessarily what's good, so don't worry if something's left out or if something is here.
Flexible Combat: You have the stats to make good use of the extra punches, so you may as well go for it.
I Can Carry the World!: Likely not as much extra damage as Flexible Combat on average, but you certainly can take both.
Legacy of the Naloren: Mostly mentioning this because I'm not sure how the trident holds up to other options these days, not really having ever taken it, but I hear it's pretty good. Also according to grobblewobble, the prodigy adds five levels to Exotic Weapon Mastery as opposed to setting it to 5, so if you can grab levels from escorts (or even just one and level it from there)...
Irresistable Sun: If you're patient enough to beat up on a training dummy with a fire/light damage weapon, then getting dudes in close is pretty welcome.
Superpower: Extra mindpower based off strength and extra damage based of willpower. Non-zigurites need not apply.
Windblade: Grab a couple of daggers and ram into a training dummy for a minute or two. Now enjoy your radius 4 320% weapon attack running off of berserker weapon damage, citizen. Thanks to thomas for pointing this out. EDIT: Jurriann points out that using the training dummy to get this doesn't work as of 1.2.4
Never Stop Running: Can get you to where you need to be and the stamina cost is something you can manage.
Draconic Will: Great in conjunction with Timeless, and other races can make use of it as well.