

This is a comprehensive guide that is meant to be useful for both experienced and inexperienced berserkers. Hi I’m Terminus and I main Berserker and Gunner on Tempest Reach (NA).This is a comprehensive guide that is meant to be useful for both experienced and inexperienced berserkers. Berserkers are an extremely underrated class, but they can be extremely strong in the right situations due to the high raw damage loaded in Thunder Strike being magnified by bloodlust. Update: This guide’s rotations and other sections have been updated with info by Lushy up to NA Tera’s February 28, 2017 patch. We will appreciate any feedback on any sections that could still need updating, or suggestions for the current content, so please leave a comment if you’d like. Table of Contents Gear Rolls Etchings Accessories Crystals Skills & Glyphs Rotations Tips & Tricks Gameplay Examples

Recommended Gear Rolls:

Weapon:

Top line:

Increases damage by 9.3% when attacking enraged monsters – Damage against enraged monsters yields the highest DPS

Bottom Lines:

Increases damage by 9.3% when attacking enraged monsters

Increases damage by 6.9% when attacking from behind

Increases damage by 6%

Increases crit power by 0.3

Why crit power instead of crit factor? With the jewelry recommended in this guide and a boss enrage uptime of 75%: 0.3 crit power gives a 3.7% DPS increase. On bosses with 100% enrage uptime, crit power gives a 3.5% DPS increase.

Using a slaying setup lowers the effectiveness of the crit power roll to a flat 3%. With the jewelry recommended in this guide 14 crit factor gives a raw DPS increase of only 1.8%.

(Enrage uptime does not change the effectiveness of this line) We can see that the crit power line gives an additional 2% DPS in average non slaying runs and an additional 1% in slaying runs over the crit factor line, therefore it is always better to roll crit power over crit factor as the 4th bottom line on an Axe. Why not cooldown reduction? Cooldown reduction is not a great stat for berserkers since your main DPS skills are on very short cooldowns and the benefit of a cooldown line is understated on skills with short cooldowns.

The cooldown of Thunder Strike is 3 seconds and 7.2% cooldown only removes 0.216 seconds from the cooldown, that ends up not really changing your main rotation at all.

The main reason for rolling cooldown would be to lower the cooldown of Fiery Rage to get the Flurry of Blows buff, this is however not as useful as it may seem since you may be unable to use Flurry right as it comes off cooldown if the boss is doing a mechanic.

Armor:

Top line:

Increases damage of Thunder Strike by 8%. – Thunder Strike is your highest contributing DPS skill and usually counts for 55-60% of your total DPS; this line is simply the best chest line for berserkers and is probably the most valuable chest line in the game.

Bottom Lines:

Decreases damage taken by 6%.

Decreases damage taken from frontal attacks by 6.9%.

Decreases damage from enraged monsters by 10%.

Raises max HP by 8%.

The three damage reduction rolls above are the most important rolls on any class and should always be used in PvE. Berserkers have low base HP so the 8% HP helps a lot as the 4th line if you have a VM chest.

Etchings:

Keen III or IV Etchings for weapon and gloves provide the highest increase in DPS.

Grounded III or IV Etchings for armor and boots provide the highest increase in survivability.

Reasoning:

Keen etchings outperform pumped etchings mathematically and as stated above cooldown reduction is not a great stat on berserkers which rules energetic etchings out.

Accessories:

Rings Manorborne & Estateborne Ring



Rolls: 4 Crit Factor & 4 Power Earrings Manorborne & Estateborne Earring



Rolls: 4% HP & 4 Endurance Necklace Manorborne Necklace



Rolls: 4 Power

Note: If you’re running with solo heal priest, you may want to replace the Estateborne Ring/Earring with Blubred or Shadowvain Ring/Earrings. Using Resizing Kits for your jewelry will also boost their DPS stats, so it’s an investment worth considering.

Innerwear

+20/+16/+12 Crit inner wear is the best for Berserkers

Weapon:

Bitter, Savage, Focused, Pounding* *You can use Carving instead while starting out if your crit factor is very low (< 150) Armor:

4x Hardy (A single Glisteningly Hardy dyad is useful here but not necessary) Accessories:

Keen Vyrsks Always use these, no matter how much crit factor you manage to stack.

Skills / Glyphs:

For the purposes of this guide, every mana cost reduction and mana recovery skill will be listed under “Ineffective” due to mana potions & divine infusions being a better choice without the cast time or glyph point cost. Essential

Situational

Ineffective

Combo Attack Strike one or more targets in front of you, and gain MP with each hit. Successive strikes do more damage, up to four hits, with the fourth hit dealing substantially more.

Neither of these glyphs are worth having since combo attack itself should never be used.

[6] – Increases Crit Factor by 0.1

[4] – Increases MP replenishment by 15%

Axe Block Block frontal attacks with your weapon

The damage absorbed by a berserkers block (while not in intimidation stance) is much lower than a lancer or brawler and should not be relied on for very hard hitting attacks, it is however very useful when blocking boss attacks that stun or stagger you but do not do a lot of damage directly.

Determining which attacks can be blocked and which can’t is a part of the learning curve when playing a berserker.

None of these glyphs are worth using when DPSing.

[4] – 30% chance to increase power by 20% for 5 seconds on a successful block.

[2] – Restores 3% of MP on a successful block.

[6] – Increases damage of Axe Counter by 25% for a few seconds.

[2] – Reduces MP cost of Axe Counter by 115 for a few seconds.

Thunder Strike Charge up your Axe by holding down the skill button, then release it to attack. Charges to three levels. Overcharging beyond the third-level charge will damage you.

The maximum damage occurs after the 4th tick of self damage and therefore should be released right after to maximize damage without wasting any additional charge time. This is the highest DPS skill for a berserker and will usually do 55-60% of your total damage. It should be prioritized over everything else at all times.

[4] – Doubles the chance to crit. – A very important glyph to have, while it doesn’t truly double your chance to crit it does increase it by a significant amount.

[2] – Decreases HP consumption by 50%. – This glyph can be useful when doing solo content

[4] – Increases charging speed by 25%. – Directly increases your DPS by decreasing the time taken to full charge, must have

[4] – Eliminates slowed movement restriction. – This is the single most important glyph for a berserker, it allows you to reposition and dodge attacks while charging. Using this glyph effectively can ensure that your Thunder Strike has 100% back time while also allowing you to continue DPSing in times when most other melee classes can not.

Flatten Pound the ground, knocking down targets within 4 meters. This skill activates faster when following Staggering Strike, Raze, and Punishing Strike.

This skill is extremely useful for PvP and tanking but it is also a very good filler skill for PvE and will usually end up being 5-7% of your total damage dealt. To make this skill an effective filler it is recommended to take both glyphs and cast it immediately after Raze

[3] – Increases attack speed of Flatten by 25%.

[3] – Increases skill damage by 30%.

Dash Increase your movement speed by 50% for 15s.

This skill is very useful for repositioning and dodging certain mechanics that can be walked out of, it also synergizes very well with charging Thunder Strike.

[4] – Decreases cooldown by 25%. – This glyph can be useful when learning new content to increase dash uptime

[4] – 35% chance to eliminate cooldown. – Not recommended since your survivability should not be dictated by any form of chance

Staggering Strike Make a sweeping attack that briefly stuns and turns your target around.

This skill is useful in PvP and for fighting BAMs however it should never be used against bosses since most bosses will resist stuns outside of specific mechanics.

[3] – Reduces MP cost of Flatten by 63 for a few seconds.

[4] – Decreases cooldown by 20%.

[4] – Speeds casting of Thunder Strike by 30% for a few seconds. – This may seem like a good glyph but the cast time of staggering strike makes Staggering Strike -> Thunder Strike a DPS loss vs just casting Thunder Strike on its own

[4] – 35% chance to eliminate cooldown. – Somewhat useful for soloing BAMs, but terrible against bosses

Mocking Shout Your warlike shout has a chance of staggering enemies within 7. You become immune to knockdown and stagger for 12, while greatly increasing your resistance to weakening effects.

This skill is useful in PvP, but is more situational for the KD and stagger immunity in PvE as lately a lot of endgame bosses do not inflict these effects. However, it can be used for speeding Cyclone’s charging, which can be weaved into a rotation.

[2] – Increases damage of Staggering Strike by 25% for a few seconds.

[2] – Speeds charging of Cyclone by 30% for a few seconds. – You may or may not take this glyph in favor of a more defensive build, but it is used in the rotation we recommend in this guide.

Fiery Rage Increases your base Power by 20% and base Crit Factor by 10%, but decreases your Endurance by 10% for 27 seconds. Also sacrifices a portion of your HP to activate Flurry of Blows, which increases attack speed and charging speed by 40% for 10 seconds.

This skill used to be separate from Flurry of Blows in the past, but both buffs have been merged into Fiery Rage. As such, this is your single most important buff and key to high DPS. The Fiery Rage part of the skill isn’t as great, 20% power is only 15 flat power and 10% crit factor is only 5 Crit Factor, you mainly want to make use of this skill for the Flurry of Blows buff. Play free slots here. This skill shouldn’t be used off cooldown mindlessly, it should be used when you can ensure maximum DPS uptime for the initial 13.5 seconds (glyphed) of Flurry of Blows.

[5] – Increases combat Movement Speed by 20 for 15 seconds

[6] – Provides 20% additional aggro

[6] – Reduces MP cost by 60.

[4] – 40% chance to increase Power by additional 10% for 20 seconds – 10% power is only 7.5 power so on average this gives you an extra 3 power per cast – not worth it at all

[4] – Increases duration of Flurry of Blows effect by 30%. – Increasing Flurry of Blows duration is a very good thing

Cyclone Charge up your attack by holding down the skill button, then release it to spin your Axe in a circle. Charges to three levels. Overcharging beyond the third-level charge will damage you. While charging up, you can move at half speed. This skill will draw normal monsters in.

The maximum damage occurs after the 5th tick of self damage and therefore should be released right after to maximize damage without wasting any additional charge time.

This is the second highest DPS skill for a berserker and will usually do 20-25% of your total damage.

Every glyph here is a DPS increase and all of them should be used

[6] – Increases additional over-charge damage by 24%.

[4] – Doubles the chance to crit.

[3] – Increases charging speed by 30%.

Leaping Strike Jump at your foe and smash downward. Knocked-down foes take 5x damage once you learn Merciless Leap.

This skill does mediocre damage however it is a very good skill for mobility and the ending animation can be canceled with block to make it even faster mobility.

It does not require any glyphs to be useful however since it will never be used for anything outside of mobility in PvE.

[5] – Increases skill damage by 25%.

[4] – 30% chance to eliminate cooldown. – Only useful to be a goof in town while idling.

[3] – Speeds casting of Lethal Strike by 30% for a few seconds.

[3] – Doubles crit rate.

Unchained Anger Sacrifice HP to gain 617 MP.

This skill gives a pretty significant amount of mana back; however, it has a very long animation lock and is never worth using when fighting bosses.

[4] – Decreases HP consumption by 50%.

[5] – Increases knockdown by 10% for 20 seconds.

[5] – 25% chance to activate Flurry of Blows I.

[6] – Decreases cooldown by 25%.

Retaliate Leap to your feet while attacking your target. You can use this skill only when knocked down. You become briefly immune to knockdown, stagger, and stuns.

[3] – Decreases cooldown by 20%.

[4] – Increases skill damage by 25%.

[3] – As your HP decreases, your skill damage increases [up to 4 times].

Vampiric Blow Charge up your Axe by holding down the skill button, then release it to attack. A portion of the damage returns to you as healing. Charges to three levels. While charging up, you can move at half speed. Activates faster but with less healing if you first overcharge Thunder Strike, Cyclone, or Lethal Strike.

This skill generally does 4-5% of your total DPS, it should be used only after Thunder Strike and only if Cyclone is on cooldown.

[5] – Increases skill damage by 25%.

[3] – Increases damage of Lethal Strike by 20% for a few seconds. – Only useful when doing a Slaying rotation, as this will greatly boost the damage of Lethal Strike, which is further boosted by being low HP. If you are not gonna be Slaying do not use this.

Fearsome Shout Monsters within 5 briefly run away from you. Fear effect ends if target is knocked down. In PvP, Fear effect ends if target is attacked.

Mostly a PvP skill extremely situational PvE uses.

[3] – Increases damage of Staggering Strike by 25% for a few seconds.

Lethal Strike Charge up your attack by holding down the skill button, then release it to attack. Costs HP to use, not MP. Only charges to two levels. While charging up, you can move at half speed.

This is normally a terrible DPS skill but it is very useful for quickly moving short distances. This moves you faster than leaping but the animation lock at the end makes it slower than leaping strike overall. If you are low HP, the damage and crit chance of this skill will be higher (200% damage at 15% HP and below), which is key when using a Slaying crystal.

[6] – Eliminates slowed movement restriction.

[3] – Increases skill damage by 30%. – Only use this if Slaying.

Tenacity Call on inner reserves to instantly replenish 900 MP. Increases resistance to stun immensely for 5 seconds. Adds Triumphant Shout buff, which stops MP decay for 22 seconds.

The Triumphant Shout skill was merged into this one. This is mostly a PvP skill to resist stuns however it can be useful when mana is being an issue in PvE (we’d recommend you use mana potions instead) or when soloing, usage is not recommended in groups and as such we recommend to not use any glyphs from here.

[3] – Decreases cooldown by 20%.

[3] – Reduces MP of Dash by 75 for a few seconds.

[5] – Doubles balance for 15 seconds.

[3] – Increases endurance by 16 for 12 seconds.

[4] – Immediately restores 12% of your total HP.

[3] – 50% chance to regenerate 6% of your total MP every second.

Inescapable Doom Briefly slows movement of targets within 5 radius by 62%. Prevents other players from using evasive and movement skills.

Mostly a PvP skill, very limited PvE usage.

[4] – Decreases cooldown by 20%.

[3] – Reduces MP cost of Flatten by 63 for a few seconds.

[5] – Increases effect duration by 30%.

[2] – Speeds casting of Flatten by 30% for a few seconds.

Bloodlust Your Power increases by 29. Your Balance Factor and Impact Factor increase by 60%. Activates Flurry of Blows II, which increases attack speed and charging speed by 40% for 10 seconds. Additionally, damage to monsters increases by 10%. Lasts 30s.

30 seconds of increased damage – This skill should be used along your brooch and mystics Contagion if you are running with one. The free Flurry of Blows buff shouldn’t be stacked with Fiery Rage’s Flurry of Blows as it will merely refresh the timer. In a future patch, the Flurry of Blows that comes with Bloodlust will be removed, so enjoy it while it lasts.

[4] – Reduces MP cost by 150.

Evasive Smash Interrupt a charging skill with a rolling dodge and then follow up with a rib-rattling uppercut attack. The dodge requires one press of the skill button. The smash requires another press of the skill button immediately after. The smash’s damage varies based on the level of the charging skill interrupted. Shares a cooldown with Evasive Roll.

This skill is useful to use when you have to dodge or re position while charging Cyclone or Thunder Strike. It is a DPS loss to use this for any other reason.

All of these glyphs are very important, depending on the boss this will be 5-10% of your total DPS

[4] – Doubles Crit Chance.

[3] – Decreases cooldown by 20%.

[4] – Increases skill damage by 25%.

Raze Knocks down monsters around you while moving forward. Enemy players are staggered.

Doesn’t knock down any bosses, however it does a decent amount of damage and allows you to chain into flatten.

Casting ‘Raze -> Flatten -> Thunder Strike’ allows you to get a fast cast of flatten while also allowing you to take advantage of the Thunder Strike charge speed glyph.

[4] – Increases casting speed by 25%.

[3] – Increases MP replenishment by 20%.

[4] – Decreases cooldown by 25%

[3] – Speeds casting of Thunder Strike by 25% for a few seconds. – This is listed as cast speed but it really increases the charge speed of Thunder Strike

Tackle Spin your Axe to hurl a bolt that knocks down an enemy up to 18m away.

This is your lowest priority Filler, you should use it if Raze, Flatten, Thunder Strike, Cyclone are all on cooldown or if you’re unable to walk towards the boss while charging Thunder Strike.

[4] – Doubles Crit Factor.

[4] – Reduces MP cost by 150.

[5] – Increases combat Movement Speed by 20 for 15 seconds.

Unbreakable Fueled by rage, your HP won’t go below 1 for 8s. You can still die if you receive a single blow that exceeds your max HP.

This skill is an iframe on cast and is useful if you get caught out without an iframe.

You can also use this to survive damage over time abilities like Hrathgol’s curse or Manaya puddles

[5] – Increases effect duration by 20%.

[3] – Decreases cooldown by 50%.

Evasive Roll Dodge your enemy’s attack. Shares a cooldown with Evasive Smash.

The cooldown reduction glyph for this skill was removed as they added the reduction to the skill itself. That glyph was moved to Evasive Smash, in case you were wondering!

Axe Counter Deliver a crushing counterattack after a successful Axe Block. Increases resistance to knockdown and stagger, and any damage taken while attacking is reduced by 50%. Can only be used while Intimidation is active.

This skill is exclusive to tanking and is not relevant for this guide

[3] – Provides 100% additional aggro.

Overwhelm Charge up to 18m and attack your enemy. Attack has a high chance of knockdown against monsters.

Good mobility skill but it’s generally safer to use this when running towards the boss instead of away since it will target the boss model if you’re standing too close.

[4] – Increases skill damage by 25%.

[3] – Decreases cooldown by 20%.

[4] – Increases combat Movement Speed by 10 for 7 seconds.

Punishing Strike Perform a quick strike that generates high aggro. Press the skill button again to dash forward and attack a second time, decreasing the target’s Endurance. Can only be used while Intimidation is active.

This skill is exclusive to tanking and is not relevant for this guide.

[4] – Reduces MP cost by 25.

[3] – Provides 100% additional aggro.

Recommended Glyph Builds:

Rotations:

A berserker’s damage revolves around optimizing the time spent during Flurry of Blows. Ideally, when the battle starts you should have Bloodlust up (which gives Flurry of Blows) and use your Brooch right after, and then Fiery Rage after Bloodlust’s Flurry of Blows runs out:

Bloodlust -> Brooch -> Fiery Rage after first Flurry of Blows ends.

…

The full rotation, assuming Bloodlust has been used already, and taking into account our recommended glyph build, is:

Fiery Rage > Thunderstrike > Cyclone > Thunderstrike > Vampiric Blow > Raze > Flatten > Thunderstrike > Cyclone > Thunderstrike > Mocking Shout (glyphed for Cyclone charge speed) > Raze > Flatten > Thunderstrike > Cyclone > Thunderstrike > Fiery Rage > Repeat from beginning

…

> Here is an example of the rotation currently suggested in this guide.

> Here is an old example Flurry rotation during Queen’s shield phase (Note: This uses the old rotation before the skill updates to the class).

Without Flurry, you should prioritize casting Thunder Strike as soon as it comes off cooldown which means your rotation should look something like this:

Thunder Strike -> Vamp Blow -> Raze -> Flatten -> Thunder Strike -> Cyclone



The reason that we skip the first Cyclone is because the charge and cast speed without Flurry is slow and will delay your second Thunder Strike. If at any time you’re interrupted during filler and your Thunder Strike comes back off cooldown you should prioritize casting Thunder Strike again and skip the filler.

As you can guess, this implies that any time you have to interrupt your rotation or break away from the boss for any reason, Thunderstrike should be your priority skill when re-engaging the boss (or Evasive Smash if you charged one to deal with an attack or mechanic).

When Slaying, using the Vampiric Blow and Lethal Strike glyphs changes the rotation a bit. Your goal then would be to fit as many Vampiric Blows and Lethal Strikes as possible, since VB will increase the damage of LS, and LS has its own damage glyph and does more damage when you are low HP. The rotation could look like this:

. . .

Basically give priority to VB -> LS and otherwise priority to Thunderstrike over Cyclone while VB and LS are on CD, and keep Flurry of Blows up.

Skill Sequences that should be never be used in PvE:

– Using Vampiric Blow after Cyclone is a DPS loss, since it delays your Thunder Strike, never use this skill chain. However, when using a Slaying rotation with the powerlinked Vampiric Blow that increases Lethal Strike damage, this chain becomes valid.

– This skill chain may seem appealing however Flatten should only be used after Raze since Staggering Strike has a long animation that cannot be block cancelled.

– It is a common misconception that using Combo Attack before Raze is a DPS gain, however it is slower than hard casting Raze (For all Races) and the damage added from Combo Attack is negligible

Tips & Tricks:

Block Cancelling:

The ending animation of most skills can be canceled with a single tap of block, the easiest way to do this is to simply hold down the block button at the end of specific skills like Thunder Strike and then release block as soon as you see your character begin to cast it.

Block cancelling is essential to maximizing DPS as well as improving your survivability.

Here is what your Flurry rotation should look like with block cancelling incorporated:

Ping Dependency:

There’s a common misconception that berserkers are very bad with high ping, but in reality they are one of the best classes for high ping players.

The only parts of a charged skill that are affected by ping are the time taken to start charging, the time taken for the skill to hit after releasing and the time taken for a block cancel to occur.

However the even though you have a delay when releasing, due to the nature of charge skills the release delay doesn’t affect your DPS at all since you can simply release your skill earlier than usual to make up for the delay.

For example, a player with 500ms ping can simply release Thunder Strike 0.5s before the last tick, which means he will end up charging for the exact same time that a 10ms player would since the 10ms player will release right after the last tick. This takes a little bit of practice and requires stable ping to be effective if your ping is fluctuating you won’t be able to effectively predict the delay.

Double brooching effectively:

The best way to start out a fight if you’re using double brooch is to do the following:

Start out with your secondary weapon set that has the first brooch you’re gonna use.

– While holding the evasive smash charge you can now swap to your primary set.

– You hit the boss with the stored evasive smash charge and minimal time wasted.

After 15 seconds have passed you can use your main brooch and use a Lein’s Dark Root Beer with it to give a massive boost to your attack speed and increase your effective burn DPS

Maximizing DPS uptime:

One of the most important things to keep in mind while playing berserker is the mentality that any time spent charging is indirectly time spent damaging the boss (as long as you land the final hit).

Whenever a boss mechanic forces you to run away from melee range you should be doing one of these 3 things:

Use Dash if it’s off cooldown and start charging Thunder Strike while walking towards the boss. Charge Cyclone into Evasive Smash from far away Cast Tackle if you can’t do any of the above

Abusing Thunder Strike Range:

Always remember that Thunder Strike has an 8 meter range and that means you’re practically a mid ranged class when using it. With February 28th’s patch, the AoE impact of Thunderstrike is shown when casting the skill, making this more intuitive.

> Here is an example of me being caught without evasive smash up on queen and instead of standing still and iframing the debuff I decide to walk out and Thunder Strike from quite far away

Dodging without iframing:

Berserkers have limited iframes, but that doesn’t mean they have limited ways to dodge attacks or chase enemies. Lethal and Leaping strike can both be used to move a small distance in a fast amount of time to dodge an attack without having to iframe it.

> A good example of this can be seen dodging lasers on DS Floor 22

Walking out of mechanics:

Since using skills like leaping strike, lethal strike and evasive roll all require you to not be charging any attacks, you should remember which mechanics you can simply walk out of while charging Thunder Strike.

> A good example of this can be seen dodging donuts on DS Floor 22

