Winner can be found here, stream of the final fight here (that was a long one -_-, 10min for Elandar, 50 for Argoniel lol)
- Why Berserker
- Races
- Stats
- Class trees
- Generic trees
- Category point
- Inscription
- Prodigies
- Escorts
- Alch quest
- Random thoughts
It’s a starter class, it’s straightforward, it’s decent in power, it’s easy to pick up, you like running into mobs and hitting them with big-ass weapons… Take your pick. It’s relaxing to play after running a MS with 30 active talents or other classes like that.
Pros :
+ Easy to pick up
+ No resource problem
+ Nice passive buffs
+ “Can’t die” button
Cons :
- Weak against bleed immune enemies
- Poor mobility
- No defense
Races :
Higher : 1.5/5 No synergies whatsoever but hey, it’s not undead.
Cornac : 2/5 You have a surplus of generics even when not cornac. Pass, unless you want to go antimagic or plan to unlock two escort trees for some reason!
Thalore : 3/5 Good first racial, summons. Too bad those scale with WIL because you won’t have any.
Shalore : 3.5/5 Crit, crit mult and speed are all good. Timeless too, you even have buffs to extend. But bad early/mid game, you are not lacking in crit and have blinding speed with more than enough points for the speed.
Doomelf : 4.5/5 Really nice, the tp gives much needed mobility, the crit shrug and debuff duration helps for defense, pitiless can extend stun/confusion/brainlock for longer enemy shutdown.
Halfling : 4/5 50% evasion is huge against other melees, indomitable ensures you’ll have 0 stun/pin issues. Good life rating too.
Ogre : 5/5 Better inscriptions and an offhand, please and thank you.
Dwarf : 3.5/5 I usually rate dwarf pretty low but they come through here, the second racial works well for a melee and since you’re gonna pump con the last will be reliable.
Yeek : 2.5/5 Yeah, it’s funny but it doesn’t work that well. Better than the humans still, you get 15% GS at least and some meatshields.
Skeleton : 1/5 They get 1/5 only to show they’re not ghouls. Zerk really need sustain healing and heroism and skellies can’t use infusions.
Ghoul : 0/5 Sorry my favorite race but I do not like to see 2 turns left on unstoppable, take an action, and see it’s not on anymore. Yes you have the CON synergy but it doesn’t make up for it like it did for bulwark.
Stats :
STR > CON > DEX/CUN
You are wearing a big scary 2h, STR is a no-brainer.
Then I choose to pump CON first because you have more than enough accuracy from talents, CON gives more resilience early game and it makes Vitality/Unflinching Resolve (UFR) that much better.
Choice between DEX/CUN is between defense and offense, you might very well reach 100% crit without CUN because Berserker has several boosts and if that happens you definitely want to pick up DEX. I’d pick up DEX but then again I rarely put points in CUN.
STR : first, MOAR damage
DEX : third/last, for the crit shrug
CON : second, defensive stats, help with clearing status through UFR
MAG : no, because we are not planning on Arcane Might
WIL : no, because we have 0 stam issue and I hate this stat
CUN : third/last, to help reach 100% crit
Class trees :
TL;DR
Techniques/Two-handed assault 3+/1/3+/1+
Techniques/Berserker’s strength 3+/3+/2+/1+
Techniques/Combat techniques 1+/1/3/5
Techniques/Combat Veteran 0-1/0-1/0/0
Techniques/Bloodthirst 5-/5/5/5
Techniques/Warcries 1-4/1-2/5/1
Rest stays locked. This is 55-61 points, you’ll still have 7-13 (+2 from alch potion) to put where you want.
Unlocked Class trees :
Techniques/Two-handed assault 3+/1/3+/1+ *your damage skills*
- Stunning Blow : stun + damage, you put 3 points there so cd = duration, more for more duration
Fearless Cleave : learn to love this. It allows you to move during pins/daze, it lets you chase fleeing enemies while dealing damage, it gives a mini-AoE that is sometimes handy for faster clearing. This is one of the top zerk skills. We don’t put more than 1 because we’re not going to use this for damage in combat anyway.
Death Dance : AoE damage, at level 3 it makes enemies bleed. Good damage, bleed is needed (we will see why in Bloodthirst) and this is one of your only way to inflict it. More points for more damage
Execution : guaranteed crit, damage goes higher the lower the enemy’s life is. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. It probably benefits more for more points than I think.
- Warshout : AoE confuse. 3 is nice breakpoint for range and duration. It will basically always beat saves since it uses your phys power and Berserker gets a ton. Which means it’ll also brainlock! OP
Berserker’s Rage : I really like that this only activates when you see an enemy (except for those times you’re blind so it deactivates and you get stunned because you don’t have 100% anymore. Moral of the story, reach 100% blind res). Gives acc, ppower, stun res and pin res. Also drains 2% current life each turn but your regen will compensate and the lower your life is the more crit you have (50% crit chance at 0 life). It should always be on as the benefit are great. At 3 you get a bunch of res already, more is up to taste but gives lower returns.
Shattering Blow : I like everything about this skill. Debuff longer than cd, check. Rip armor to shreds for more damage, check. Reduce saves for more chances of brainlock/stun/confuse, check. Can instantly remove a damage shield, check. Low cd and decent damage? Check! 2 is for good chance to break damage shield, 4 is for duration > cd, 5 is for bigger numbers.
Relentless Fury : the big problem about this skill is that you rarely are low enough on stamina that you can use it. But when you are it’s a nice movement speed + attack speed boost (think mini-rampage). It also regens a lot of stam because you have been pumping CON, so you shouldn’t ever have resource issues. I wished it didn’t take a turn to use though
- Rush : great escape since you can target an empty square (this is still retarded, please revert the change), 3 is a nice breakpoint for the range but keeping it at 1 is perfectly fine
Precise Strikes : you’re not gonna want to use this as you have no accuracy problem, no crit problem and many of your talents use attack speed. 1 to go on.
Perfect Strikes : give huge amount of accuracy and blind fight. 3 for 5 duration, really important to have in dreadfell for those dreadmasters.
Blinding Speed : obviously gonna max this, more global speed is huge.
- Quick Recovery : little bit of stam regen, not needed on Berserker.
Fast Metabolism : little bit of life regen, I like to put 1 early but it’s not really noticeable late.
Spell Shield : spell saves? You don’t really care for that
Unending Frenzy : no stamina problems, this only triggers on kills, pass.
Techniques/Bloodthirst 5-/5/5/5 *unlock it at level 20*
- Mortal Terror : if you manage to trigger it then the daze is probably not important because you can just destroy the mob. The crit chance is what you’re here for, don’t need to invest early and maybe not even 5/5 it if you got enough crit from other sources.
Blood Bath : bonus max life after a crit, bonus regen to health and stamina. Stamina regen is one of the reason you don’t have resource problems, bonus life and life regen is good.
Bloody Butcher : the really important skill here, some ppower, and when you apply bleed on enemies you reduce their phys resistance. That + Shattering Blow really help your damage, but this one does not work against some mobs and that makes Dreadfell a pain for instance.
Unstoppable : the other important skill, makes you immortal for a few turns but you can’t heal during that time. You heal at the end for each enemy killed during the duration (with good heal mod, 2 kills or so will top you of at 5/5). You lose the bonus crit from berserker’s Rage during the duration though. Use if a fight seems to go badly and escape after a few turns (and hopefully at least one kill on a critter nearby).
- Shattering Shout : Shattering Shout only shatters at TL5, seems legit. I put 1 to get to the rest but 4 (thanks to mastery) to be able to destroy projectiles can be nice.
Second Wind : you already don’t have stam problem. If you really want, 2 instead of 1 should be enough to fill you up from empty. It’s instant.
Battle Shout : great life and stamina increase. No reason not to max this, it’s great.
Battle Cry : an excellent skill that does not benefit from level whatsoever. Lowering defense is unneeded since you have crazy amount of accuracy, you’re here to ignore evasion (like Elandar’s hymn of shadows) and the chance to miss from stealth/invisibility (like Elandar’s). Sadly the duration does not scale with level.
Techniques/Dirty Fighting *I’d use it if it was unlocked but it’s not worth the cat point*
Techniques/Superiority *not unlocked because everything but first is terrible. And first can be found on items*
Techniques/Archery Training *joke tree*
Generic trees :
TL;DR
Combat Training : 3+/3+/0/1+/5/0
Conditioning : 1-2/5/1/1
Survival : 1/5/1/1
28-29 points only. That leaves 19-20 points (+2 with alch potion) to be used on racials and maybe escort tree. Do you see why I said no to Cornac?
Possibly worthwhile trees to unlock : light, chants. Both have cleanse + other stuff and so are better than an insc (since you can run one less wild) if you can spare the points. And you can.
If going the alternate road of antimagic, add :
Antimagic : 5/2-4/3+/1-4
Fungus : 5/1/2/1
48-54 total. Basically, all the free points that were left and all the Cornac bonus gen points fit perfectly in Antimagic + Fungus.
Combat Training : 3+/3+/0/1+/5/0
- Thick skin : 3 points is good, max late with your extra points.
Heavy Armour Training : 3 for massive armor, 5 late for more crit reduction.
Light Armour Training : 0, you use massive armor since you don’t have the mobility tree
Combat Accuracy : 1 early is nice before you have berserker rage giving you 50+. More if you happen to have problem hitting consistently for some reason.
Weapon Mastery : 5/5 unless going Naloren, because you want to deal damage. If you plan to go Naloren you can either float points here or do like me and 5/5 it anyway because you have so many extra points.
Dagger mastery : I guess you have the points for that if you’re Ogre-wielding a dagger. Otherwise 0 of course.
- Vitality : 1 is great early for big regen boost. 2 is nice for shorter duration on poison/disease/wounds.
Unflinching Resolve (UFR) : removing debuff passively is GREAT.
Daunting Presence : 1 point to access adrenaline surge. Stun/sustain removal fodder. Paired with high saves it probably helps a little, you just won’t notice it.
Adrenaline surge : 1 point to ensure you can use Unstoppable when needed. Useful when you just got unstoppable and don’t have a big stam pool, won’t see use later as we have stated already that zerk doesn’t have stam issues.
- Heightened Senses : 1 point for those early unlit dungeons and stealth/invis.
Device Mastery : the reason not to max this would be that you don’t use charms but then I’d just tell you to - use them as they’re great. Seriously.
Track : even if you don’t usually bother with it, it’s good to have the option. Also it’s smart to use it and you should do so (do as I say, not as I do)
Danger Sense : 1 point for small crit shrug bonus and a second chance to save. The saves are reduced like crazy for the second check but it’s still 5% chance minimum to resist debuffs so I’ll take it.
A possible alternative would be to antimagic (in which case I WOULD go Cornac). I do not recommend it as a lot of great fixed art 2h are arcane and randarts obviously have a chance as well. Nevertheless here is the investment I would make.
Antimagic : 5/2-4/3+/1-4 *fine, take it if you want it*
- Resolve : 5 for that stam/equilibrium regen even under AMS. And better resistance of course (the resistance part can crit btw)
Silence : 2 and 4 both are good breakpoint for range/duration. At 4 you can reliably DECREASE your equilibrium when using silence!
Antimagic Shield : Going more than 3 will make it harder to keep the shield up but will block more. At least 3, more to taste.
Mana Clash : 1 for a bit of damage and reducing EQ. 4 for duration = CD. Think of the manaburn as 15% damage boost as long as the target has arcane resources (not paradox).
- Wild Growth : LONGER. REGEN. DURATION.
Fungal Growth : if this proc from unstoppable this is hilarious and 1 point will be enough to keep you topped off for 6 turns after unstoppable end. If it doesn’t work it stays at 1 anyway because you’ll be using regen, not heals.
Ancestral Life : we’re there for the EQ regen, so AMS lasts longer. Regen taking less turn is also nice.
Sudden Growth : take it just in case, sometimes it’s worth it.
Inscription -> (Fungus if Cornac and antimagic -> ) Bloodthirst -> 2 of inscription/Warcries/escort tree
Inscription first like 90% of the classes because another inscription is really powerful (and better than Bloodthirst at this point).
Bloodthirst at 20, ready to take unstoppable at 22.
Fungus once you did the antimagic challenge and start to run out of place to put generics.
If you take an escort tree, take it before Warcries and skip the inscription.
Inscriptions :
Nothing fancy. Heal/wild/movement early, add heroism when you can (and regen/heal in the meantime). Replace the phys wild by a mental wild at some point, probably around DF.
You won’t use PD because your mobility is very poor so you can’t gap close easily after PD. Because of that, end game you’ll have 5 infusions, heroism/movement/heal/mental wild + another heroism/movement/heal/wild to taste.
I don’t like dual phys/mental wild late because UFR will take care of a lot of things, heal will take care of poisons/wounds, and so I want to be sure the wild will cleanse Hexes/Sleep/ID and not a random phys effect that something else can clear. The benefits of dual wild would be to be able to cleanse Disarm though.
Prodigies :
ICCtW + Naloren.
ICCtW at 30 because it’s a HUGE damage boost.
Naloren next because that weapon is broken (and works even better than regular 2h with ICCtW)
Fun-but-probably-worse alternatives :
- - Windblade : for AoE + disarm
- Wintouched Speed (if antimagic) : because it’s awesome. Use a totem that grants levels in wild gift talents to makes this easier to take.
- Giant Leap : for stun/pin cleanse and mobility
- NSR : mobility and that way you might actually run out of stam and get to use relentless fury
- Fungal Blood : another instant heal and a way to cleanse impending doom/curses. You should have 5 infusions and a ton of CON so you get a good mileage out of it.
Sun Paladin : so many possibilities! Betray if you plan to go antimagic, or want to be able to betray following escorts, disengage and evasion are both great at 1 point. Or don’t betray and take 1 point in chant of fortitude for more HP. Or don’t betray and unlock chants if you want another tree to spend your points in!
Anorithil : if you betray for antimagic/next escorts reasons, conversion is great as it’s a heal + resource fill. The other option sucks and the tree is not great to unlock. If you don't betray, either BiL for extra shield + heal mod in a pinch, or the whole tree if you want it above an insc. Values are not great since you don’t have any MAG but providence is always useful.
Seer : betray for nature’s touch. If you can’t, either Arcane Eye for scouting or just some stats. I don’t like to take premonition because 1) yay, taking manaburn damage and 2) best cloak (bonus to combat training mastery) have negative mana regen so premonition won’t be able to stay on.
Temporal Explorer : betray for dreamwalk. If you can’t, foresight for that 1% crit shrug. Or precog for stun fodder (you have track which is better)
Warrior : free points in vitality/UFR/Exotic weapon mastery!
Thief : free points in device mastery!
Alchemist : nothing remotely useful. Stun fodder or stats.
Loremaster : disarm is really nice!
Tinker : ask where they learned their craft and get tinkers. If you feel bad using tinkers because they’re too broken, take the 2 CUN + crit shrug one.
Alchemist Quest :
Foundation > Focus >> Precision >>>> Brawn > Whatever man.
You can try to get the gem from Derth or the invulnerability potion from Elvala if you want, they can come in handy.
This should not be a whole section it’s way too small for that! But we’ve finished the guide already so whatever :p
Random thoughts :
- - My winner did NOT follow the recommendation of this guide so don’t copy it, look at the TL;DR regarding talents.
- Undead/Elementals, anything bleed immune is way tankier than they look since you lose the 40% phys reduction.
- Berserker stack ppower like no one else so all your status will always stick, it feels really good
- Cuirass of the dark lord is GREAT (activate to make everyone bleed in AoE, gain stats based on number of targets).
- If for some reason I couldn’t kill even one mob during Unstoppable, I ran while it was still active then cancelled the buff manually and used a heal infusion. That way I was healed without taking a turn and with no risk of getting hit/killed between the time Unstoppable stopped and the time my turn came back.
- Love bleeding edge rings, 1 more button to inflict bleed and also reduce healing.
- Love Bladed Rift as it gives bleed on hit/when hit.
Now, obviously I don't have a mastery talent or any way to regenerate steam, but the blindside effect still kicks in even with steam at 0. This is pretty useful considering my fairly limited mobility- and it beats the daggers I've found so far.