Zerberker4, the level 31 cornac berserker

[supermini]

Well, here goes another one down the drain.

The last one met his demise at the bottom of Dreadfell, losing to a Dreadmaster. This time I boosted both perfect strikes and piercing sight (mostly escort reward thief points, but I put in a few), and while Dreadmasters were still a huge pain in the posterior to kill, it wasn't impossible.

This time, however, I was simply surrounded by devourers and a few NOMNOMNOMs later, I was dead. I could have teleported away, but I put faith in 'Unstoppable' to pull me through. That was a mistake.

My conclusion, so far, is that the 'Berserker' ability is not really worth it for me. The most trouble I had during this character's short life was with melee, not casters. -10 armor and -10 defense means everything hits and everything hurts. Yes, it gives stun resistance and accuracy and physical power, but I'm constantly scrambling to keep myself alive. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Onward to Zerberker5.

[laru]

Are you maybe playing your zerks too much "bulwark-style"? A berzerker is able to endure huge bursts of damage and simultaneously dish out huge amount of damage to the opponents *in a short amount of time*. After that, you have to get the heck out of there and regroup. A movement infusion is a must, as are stunning/confusing/dazing your opponents while in combat. Don't try to tank too much!

[supermini]

Are you maybe playing your zerks too much "bulwark-style"? A berzerker is able to endure huge bursts of damage and simultaneously dish out huge amount of damage to the opponents *in a short amount of time*. After that, you have to get the heck out of there and regroup. A movement infusion is a must, as are stunning/confusing/dazing your opponents while in combat. Don't try to tank too much!

After looking through successful builds, I also seriously underestimated how important the vitality talent is for berserkers. Also, what you say is true, I did try to tank and outlast my opponents too much.

[SageAcrin]

Berserker, as a skill, is eventually a positive for tanking playstyles(The -10 never gets bigger, and eventually 65% Stun resistance and the big damage/accuracy boost for killing faster are, overall, far better for your overall survival than that defense/armor would be).

But if you're dumping 5 into it early, you shouldn't try to tank stuff early on, I agree. It definitely is a very sizable hit to your earlygame defenses.

Devourers are one of the highest threats to low defense/armor characters. Just teleport/Movement away on them, always, if you are in an open area with them. Try to take them on in an enclosed hallway where you only have to deal with two, instead.

Vitality is less of a big deal than Unflinching Resolve, but if you're playing a tank oriented Berserker, Vitality is quite a good option.

Probably the biggest boon for a tanking Berserker is to slot the 20/30 category points into more Rune/Infusion slots. With as much HP as they have, it becomes rapidly difficult to really drop a Berserker with two good Regens and a Shielding on.

[Frumple]

Biggest boon for heavy tank 'zerker would probably be to go antimagic and drop one of the later cat points into fungus. AM synergizes pretty well with going a shattering impact build (either your 30 or your bile going to superiority), too, since the antimagic tree itself benefits from pumping up willpower (for stamina pool) and cunning (to keep the crits coming and bloodbath at max stacks), due to the mindpower that comes from it. As always, antimagic shield itself is an incredible survivability boost if you can keep it running, and the third tier fungus talent does just that.

Shield rune's nice, but it's not 100-120% (depending on extra cat point) boost to all your regen infusions and knocking 30-50 points off every non-physical attack nice

Anyway, yeah, most things sting a bit for 'zerkers, but you should be two, maybe three-shotting (and, not uncommonly, chain-dazing them due to mortal terror because of that) almost everything for a long, long time, and bloodbath (plus some kit regen/healmod and fast metabolism) should get whatever damage you take back in a couple turns. Devourers are indeed a PitA, though. Don't underestimate those buggers once you start bleeding -- they can get pretty nasty regardless of class or build if you're not cut immune.

[supermini]

Thanks for the advice.

@SageAcrin: I have seriously underestimated devourers. I'm used to blasting them away from a distance, this whole melee malarky is quite different. So, with regards to infusions, you would go 2 regen, 1 shield, 1 wild and 1 movement/teleport? I went for 2 wild infusions, although 2 double wilds seem to be an overkill next to unflinching resolve.

@Frumple: Zerberker #3 had anti-magic, and while it did wonders for surviving mages, I don't really like the restriction it puts on gear. I didn't try getting the fungus tree though. If there's a berserker #7 (#6 is still kicking), I'll have to try it out, but it's something I would plan in advance because of escorts.

[Frumple]

Mm... just remember fungus is guaranteed; it's a reward for killing Urkis. Escorts are an issue though, yeah. It's... well, irksome to have to take a +1 stat instead of a decent talent because you're going AM, heh. Still, fungus is incredible, the shield's great. Silence aura's solid, too.

Might consider playing SVN. S'a bit different with that, don't have to have antimagic to sac folks to Zigur for previously AM rewards. Don't potentially lose out on as much, yeah.

[supermini]

Ah, didn't know about the fungus tree being for defeating Urkis. It's worth considering.

[supermini]

Zerberker6 is now dead. I descended to level 7 of Dreadfell where I found a Dreadmaster and 6 dreads waiting for me by the entrance. After trying to use the stairs a several times, it turned out I couldn't even kill one dread before I had to run up the stairs. I had the withering orbs, but there was absolutely no way to fight 7 of them at the same time. I tried to teleport away and make my way to the stairs for the next level, but it was not to be. I got surrounded and torn to pieces.

I can't begin to tell you how frustrated I am. There was nothing I could do.

[5k17]

There was nothing I could do.

You could have left Dreadfell, done another dungeon (or farportal destination) and returned with a higher level and/or better equipment.

[supermini]

There was nothing I could do.

You could have left Dreadfell, done another dungeon (or farportal destination) and returned with a higher level and/or better equipment.

I don't see me being able to kill 6 dreads and a dreadmaster standing around the stairs, better gear or not. I could have gotten 3 more levels maybe, but I don't think it would have made much difference.

[donkatsu]

Did you have enough accuracy to never miss them? Once you get past their high permastealth, which you did with Withering Orbs, and their high defense, dreads and dreadmasters aren't actually that tough anymore. I think dreads generally have around 45 defense, and dreadmasters maybe 50, so you'd need 65-70 accuracy. That sounds high but with Combat Accuracy, Berserker, and/or Perfect Strikes, it's not really out of reach. No matter how much damage they're doing to you, Unstoppable should give you enough time to at least take out the dreadmaster, unless it phase doors away, in which case the next time you come up the stairs it won't be there anymore.

Also why couldn't you just teleport again when you got surrounded the second time? If you're moving away from them, they shouldn't be able to catch up to you before your teleport rune comes off of cooldown, even with Burning Hex.

[aardvark]

There was nothing I could do.

You could have left Dreadfell, done another dungeon (or farportal destination) and returned with a higher level and/or better equipment.

I don't see me being able to kill 6 dreads and a dreadmaster standing around the stairs, better gear or not. I could have gotten 3 more levels maybe, but I don't think it would have made much difference.

The important thing in this situation is to take down the dreadmaster. Pop Perfect Strike, follow up with Death Dance, then pound the dreadmaster with your highest damage attacks: Stunning Blow, Sunder Armor, whatever you've got! Then hightail it up/down the stairs before they finish you off, rest, and repeat with the lesser dreads. If you can't kill the dreadmaster before taking the stairs, it'll heal back up to full and you'll have to start all over. But if you do manage to kill it, the rest will fall like dominoes.

Of course, I always invest heavily in the Bloodthirst tree. The healing gives more toe-to-toe time. Other builds, probably not so much.

As for devourers, SageAcrin is right about taking them one at a time in hallways. What he forgot to mention was the necessity of throwing Stunning Blow at the first in line. They have a jump/teleport talent that they'll use to surround you (one in front, one behind). The stun puts that on cooldown as well as gutting their ridiculous Frenzy enhanced damage. If the first dies while Stunning Blow is still on cooldown and you're not confident of your ability to take two at once (and you shouldn't be) you can back away until Stunning Blow is ready again.

[supermini]

Did you have enough accuracy to never miss them? Once you get past their high permastealth, which you did with Withering Orbs, and their high defense, dreads and dreadmasters aren't actually that tough anymore. I think dreads generally have around 45 defense, and dreadmasters maybe 50, so you'd need 65-70 accuracy. That sounds high but with Combat Accuracy, Berserker, and/or Perfect Strikes, it's not really out of reach. No matter how much damage they're doing to you, Unstoppable should give you enough time to at least take out the dreadmaster, unless it phase doors away, in which case the next time you come up the stairs it won't be there anymore.

Since I got the orbs from the first tier dungeons I never leveled perfect strikes. I think in the end my damage output was too low. My weapon kinda sucked and it was partly my fault. I chose to buy blood of life from the last hope shop instead of a decent weapon, thinking that I will surely find something in Dreadfell. I also built for survival rather than damage output...Old habits die hard.

Also why couldn't you just teleport again when you got surrounded the second time? If you're moving away from them, they shouldn't be able to catch up to you before your teleport rune comes off of cooldown, even with Burning Hex.

I went with psychoportation charm instead of teleport. If I had a movement infusion instead of shield rune, it wouldn't have been such a problem. You die and learn, I guess.

[supermini]

The important thing in this situation is to take down the dreadmaster. Pop Perfect Strike, follow up with Death Dance, then pound the dreadmaster with your highest damage attacks: Stunning Blow, Sunder Armor, whatever you've got! Then hightail it up/down the stairs before they finish you off, rest, and repeat with the lesser dreads. If you can't kill the dreadmaster before taking the stairs, it'll heal back up to full and you'll have to start all over. But if you do manage to kill it, the rest will fall like dominoes.

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to need it, as Zerberker7 is entering Dreadfell.

I'm just too stubborn to quit.

EDIT: That...didn't take long. Zerberker7 met his demise on the 8th floor of Dreadfell, after being hit by the Rotting Titan for 843 damage in one attack (66 blight, 409 physical, 19 blight, 351 physical). I'm glad to report that I managed to kill a Dreadmaster and a whole bunch of Dreads on the 7th level thanks mostly to advice that I got here. So thank you all for being patient with me.

I feel like nothing in the early dungeons prepares you for Dreadfell, where my ceiling of skill seems to be - at least when it comes to roguelike difficulty. This saga will continue as soon as I find the energy to go through the boring early game...again.