Need some berserker build ideas

[Derael]

There is basically only one Berserker Guide over there and it's pretty old.

So I want to find some good way to play it.

1. First of all, regarding the race. My top choices are Shalore, Cornac and Ogre. Basically, Shalore is straightforward, Cornac variant will go AM + Fungus and Ogre is pretty similar to Shalore in terms of build, but not sure about Ogrewielding on Berserker, there is nothing really good for off hand slot I can think about.
   
   As for Categories, I most likely want 5 inscription, Bloodbath and Tinkers on everyone, maybe except Ogre. But if I go Ogre, it will be too similar to bpat's Cursed guide, but with less utility and movement, so I don't really like this choice. AM looks much better on Berserker, so Cornac looks good. While Shalore is great for extra crit, global speed buff and Timeless.

• Second question is about stat distribution and some skills. I definitely want 100% crit by the end, and I want to max STR and CON. So the choice is between DEX and CUN (and maybe WIL). On Shalore it's definitely DEX, since I get crit from racial. But cornac is more complex. DEX definitely looks better, but it'd be bad if I don't get enough crit in the end. So I though about using Precise Strikes. It's actually quite good with high DEX, but reduced attack speed is impactful if your speed is negative. So the problem is to find some reliable way of increasing attack speed for it to become positive.
  
  I though about it, because there are no really good trees to unlock for Berserker aside of Bloodthirst. Warcries are decent but I don't like them very much, and Superioiry is simply terrible. While Dirty Fighting might be good, but it's too unreliable IMO.
  So I will have lots of class points to spend. Basically, as Cornac I will have 75 class points for 4 categories (Combat Veteran excluded), that's why I can simply max everything but 4 skills. And sacrificing infusion or Tinkers for extra category isn't looking that good. Another reason why I'm looking at this is because I consider Legacy of Naloren as my second prodigy of choice, and it boosts Combat Techniques even further. So yeah, if I find a way to boost attack speed, it'd be perfect. Boosting global speed is inefficient, since global and attack speed stack multiplicatively and this 0.1 modifier will effectively weaken all global speed buffs. While additive attack speed buff will work just perfectly. One way to do this is using Coralyem, but it'll be helpful only before East, and its drop is not reliable.

• Third question is about prodigies. Basically most promising are ICCtW, Flexible Combat and LotN. PES also looks decently with ICCtW, but it's more defensive one. Spine of the World and other CC protection oriented prodigies are probably unnecesary since I'll have Conditioning and Trinkets. Giant leap looks viable, since berserker lacks mobility outside of Rush.
  
  Automated Reflex System is another decently looking one, but probably too situational, and is basically a weaker version of Windtouched Speed (which is nearly impossible to get, outside of grabbing psiblades and temporarily investing points in this tree). Windblade is good as always, but I just don't feel that it fits here. Corrupted Shell and Bloodspring are just terrible, Draconic Body doesn't fit, Never stop running will cripple my Stamina, Subcutaneous metallisation won't help vs big hits, AM is bad for 2H user, Cauterize is unnecesary for Adventure, and probably is outright bad on berserker. Most willpower and Cunning talents don't fit quite well overall. So yeah, basically I choose between ICCtW, Flexible Combat and LotN.
  
  My choice will probably be ICCtW and LotN since they synergise very well, I always wanted to try Naloren trident and Trinkets will cover most defensive needs. But I'm very open to better options, not sure how good FC is compared to Naloren.

So, any more tips/ideas? BTW, I'm using Select your escorts Addon, because I like to min-max and utilize Escort skills in my builds, even if it's unnecesary.

[tabs]

Halfling's first racial can give huge amounts of crit chance with minimal investment.

Re; Warcries tree. Don't underestimate the fact that Second Wind is instant-use. Nothing sucks more than being caught just a few stamina points short of your Unstoppable cost. Precasting Battle Shout gives stupid amounts of HP/Stamina for a long, long time. Battle Cry can cancel all enemy evasion effects with a single point.

My Berserker winner (nightmare, for what it's worth) was a Dwarf, went Tinkers, didn't go Antimagic, and took Flex and Steamroller.

[Derael]

Halfling's first racial can give huge amounts of crit chance with minimal investment.

Re; Warcries tree. Don't underestimate the fact that Second Wind is instant-use. Nothing sucks more than being caught just a few stamina points short of your Unstoppable cost. Precasting Battle Shout gives stupid amounts of HP/Stamina for a long, long time. Battle Cry can cancel all enemy evasion effects with a single point.

My Berserker winner (nightmare, for what it's worth) was a Dwarf, went Tinkers, didn't go Antimagic, and took Flex and Steamroller.

I'm looking for Insane builds mostly, but I can see how Steamroller was fun on Nightmare, and I know that Flex is always good, but if Naloren isn't much worse, I'd rather go with it, just for the flavor. Dwarf is definitely a good choice, but it doesn't fit very well in my desired setup. And Halfling crit is overkill, also duration is short, but the race overall is also good. Yet I'm mostly deciding between the listed 3 races.

As for Warcry, I never underestimated it, but I feel this whole tree is only needed for stamina management since max life isn't very helpful with good regeneration. But Berserker already has quite enough of Stamina management talents and I can get Adrenaline Surge at the cost of just 2 generics to enable Unstoppable at any time (but might as well max it to let it work for the whole duration of unstoppable). While another infusion will always be helpful, espeically since I'm going Tinkers and will have only 3 slots for infusions. Just need to make sure I have enough generics, since it might be tight even as Cornac.

Also I will raise WIL last if I manage to make Precise Strikes work, so hopefuly stamina management won't be such big of an issue.

[Gustavo_Paranga]

Windtouched Speed can be unlocked if you went AM. If you are gonna use cornac AM/Fungus, the +20% global can mitigate the attack speed loss from precise strikes. Problem is, you will have to raise Wil too, maybe get Superpower instead of ICCtW?

[Derael]

Windtouched Speed can be unlocked if you went AM. If you are gonna use cornac AM/Fungus, the +20% global can mitigate the attack speed loss from precise strikes. Problem is, you will have to raise Wil too, maybe get Superpower instead of ICCtW?

How do you unlock Windtouched spee without getting Mindstar Mastery? I barely got enough points with heavy investemnts in AM and Mindstar trees, but on Berserker it's a waste of Generic Points.

Superpower is not great, as it benefits more for dual wielding users, and I don't need mindpower at all.

So yeah, Windtouched Speed is seemingly not an option. And as I said, countering attack speed debuff with global speed buff is not very efficient, since it will decrease efficiency of all global speed buffs by 10%, which is not very good. The best choice for me would be some sort of attack speed buff for additive bonus.

[Gustavo_Paranga]

How do you unlock Windtouched spee without getting Mindstar Mastery? I barely got enough points with heavy investemnts in AM and Mindstar trees, but on Berserker it's a waste of Generic Points.

Windtouched speed requires 20 equilibrium talents, AM itself can be used for that, so is Fungus, and since I post this as a sugestion on the cornac AM/fungus, it will do the prerequisite.

[Derael]

Windtouched speed requires 20 equilibrium talents, AM itself can be used for that, so is Fungus, and since I post this as a sugestion on the cornac AM/fungus, it will do the prerequisite.

As far as I know, sustains and passives do not count. I have Cornac Solipsist with AM/Fungi + Mindstars and he has only 17 talents Equilibrium talents, because I unlearned useless talents after getting windtouched speed. So AM alone can only provide 10 points and Fungus 5 more, if you are willing to dump 5 points into useless Sudden Growth. Big part of my points comes from Mindstar mastery tree (6 to be precise, and I had 9 there to unlock WS). So with Mindstar Mastery + Fungus + AM you barely qualify for Windtouched speed without wasting generic talents. With AM+Fungus it's simply impossible, unless you dumped points into Sudden Growth and got 5 generic equilibrium talents from escorts.

[Cathbald]

Totem can grant wild gift, those levels count toward the 20

[Gustavo_Paranga]

As far as I know, sustains and passives do not count. I have Cornac Solipsist with AM/Fungi + Mindstars and he has only 17 talents Equilibrium talents, because I unlearned useless talents after getting windtouched speed. So AM alone can only provide 10 points and Fungus 5 more, if you are willing to dump 5 points into useless Sudden Growth. Big part of my points comes from Mindstar mastery tree (6 to be precise, and I had 9 there to unlock WS). So with Mindstar Mastery + Fungus + AM you barely qualify for Windtouched speed without wasting generic talents. With AM+Fungus it's simply impossible, unless you dumped points into Sudden Growth and got 5 generic equilibrium talents from escorts.

As far as I know antimagic shield counts because is a sustained talent, not passive, so it counts because there is a equilibrium cost to it, so AM gives you 15 and with 5 from fungus, gives you 20

Totem can grant wild gift, those levels count toward the 20

Really? You mean the totens who gives rushing claws or invoke tentacles, right?

[Cathbald]

Yes, those totems. You can also get webs from them. And they help for Stone Warden unlock as well

[Derael]

As far as I know antimagic shield counts because is a sustained talent, not passive, so it counts because there is a equilibrium cost to it, so AM gives you 15 and with 5 from fungus, gives you 20

No, equilibrium sustains don't count, I checked my character before writing my comment. AM grants max 10 (usually 9) and Fungus grants max 5 (usually 1).

[Gustavo_Paranga]

No, equilibrium sustains don't count, I checked my character before writing my comment. AM grants max 10 (usually 9) and Fungus grants max 5 (usually 1).

Damn, oh well, my bad
I think I change too much the subject, back to the berserker, as you said Flexible Combat is a good one, free extra hits is as good as it sounds, and some gloves gives you good on hit effects. Swift hand is a underwhelming prodigy, but can give you a lot of value if you max device mastery and since you want a Insane build, you will have a lot of good itens and I think it works on attachments cooldown when you change equip, but I'm not sure.

[Derael]

Damn, oh well, my bad
I think I change too much the subject, back to the berserker, as you said Flexible Combat is a good one, free extra hits is as good as it sounds, and some gloves gives you good on hit effects. Swift hand is a underwhelming prodigy, but can give you a lot of value if you max device mastery and since you want a Insane build, you will have a lot of good itens and I think it works on attachments cooldown when you change equip, but I'm not sure.

Flexible combat is obviously good, but I don't see any specific synergy with Berserker, so I'm a bit doubtful.

As for Swift Hands, it's probably the strongest, but at the same time the most tedious prodigy, so I'd rather not use it.