Berserker Tips

[wasabi^_x]

Im planning on starting with a Berserker, and i would like some general tips about this class :)

Also, is it good to use claws, or swords are better?

Thanks guys :)

[thelastlemming]

I'm having my first "serious" go at a Berserker build, on Normal difficulty. Just to learn the skill tree safely.

The claw/sword decision hasn't been a significant factor in my play style; I would advise choosing the weapon with higher DPS.

Claw weapons will not offer splash damage, which almost makes them inferior at a glance. Compensate for this deficiency by using skills that spread damage over targets; Eviscerate is the earliest example. Or try the lightning melee skill if you prefer to use regular attacks. This will allow you to inflict lightning damage across multiple targets. Optionally, targets in an area can be bound such that each blow will hit all enemies. But that's a skill I haven't used yet.

[wasabi^_x]

Well, i decided to go for the "passive" skill build that you guys suggested, and will get a point in the lighting one for some extra aoe. Thanks for the tips guys :)

[NoNeedForGravity]

my build for bezerker is a claw build where i only level dexterity and use claws. Its pretty ridiculous but works well, especially when you level his passive that gives him percentage of max health per crit.

[thelastlemming]

I think my character is going to invest heavily in Dexterity. Using sword and shield it wasn't a huge priority, but it's also a very tame build. Especially since I'm tearing through Normal to reach NG+...

[Dadoosan]

If you don't plan on sword+boarding, avoid elite mode, period. Other than that, build DEX for crit+dodge, STR for damage and crit extra damage. VIT is useful to some degree for the extra armor but it's not a priority. Finally, FOC. Most people avoid this stat, but I think it synergizes well with the berserker later on. It gives you a larger mana pool and adds to your elemental damage (Stormclaw, Shadow Rush, etc). It's worth it to me, at least.

[Grim Revan]

I have just reached lv 32 on Berserker and I now believe it to be the most OP class in the game. I have a heavy focus on Dex mainly to enhance crits. With the right passives it does 2 things: 1) with Blood Hunger it keeps ur life full, 2) It can lead to unexpected chain explosions of damage with Red Wolf which I discovered by accident. How Red Wolf works is with every crit u land it can damage up to 2 nearby mobs and originally I thought it looked like crap. Then as my crit % started getting near 20% I was trying to figure out how whole groups began to explode. Turns out if those 2 extra hits crit they can each branch out 2 more hits. Now a massive Dex build seems less relevant for endgame, but for now it is working wonders. I should probably ♥♥♥♥ more to the other stats now as my crit % is 20% with raw stats.
Another skill I would like to highlight is Shadow burst because u can easily spam when needed early in the game for life. I don't plan to take beyond lv 5 as my crits will soon be all I need for life. I am already only using it to dash, lol. I also love the passive Shred Armor which rips all the enemy defences down and builds yours up with each hit. The passive Executioner is great for rapid Charge filling. I also just use Twin Claws since they are my highest DPS, but keep the best pair of twin swords I have as an alternate. If the swords surpase my claws then I switch.

[LastMonoblos]

After studying many zerker build guides and Finishing Tl2 VHC, I believe the flaw in Tl2 zerker charater skills is little controll over damage spikes i.e Leathal damage taken past armor before you can humanly react. Only The skills that controll it, Howl, Shadowburst are must takes. Gear wise, All damage taken reduce gems (eyes of grell) and heath only protection damage spikes to your zereker and Slowing Debuffs. Block or Dodge do not provide "protection" but make the event of damage spike less likely. Another suggestion if your not having succes with DW zerker is to try TankZerker, i.e Shield and Claw, Mana Steal, Skills Northern Rage and Raze Shoadowburst, Howl google for much better suggestions.

[HiFiCrisp]

search the runic forums for bersker ravage build. Watch the video and get blown away!

[Chibi]

well i prefer the tundra build with staff weapon

[Ryu Oki]

One thing I really like about this game is the flexibility in its character customization. I prefer to play the character the way I enjoy it rather than just carbon copy someone else's builds and ideas. If you want speed go with claws, if you want mass slaying go with any of the other wepon types as they will hit more than one target per swing. It is all about YOUR personal play style. For the highest survival you will definitely need the crits and boosts to % healed per crit while stacking damage reduction and high armor gear.

[🎃MaximusBlastalot🎃]

This is in regard mainly to elite ie optimal, lower difculty lvl optimizing isnt as much of a factor however will still be more effective.

In torchlight 2 armor scales poorly so if you want more "defense" you mainly socket health ember, dmg reduction, health regen/steal(thought steal is only truely effective thrue percent the number health steal is almost always to low to matter) .

Vit also scales poorly compared to gems and enchantments. Vit is mainly used for increaseing block rate. Keep in mind their is a cap on many things (dodge,block,critdmg,critchance,dmg reduction,etc.) and their is a high block rate sheild or two.It is of note that the skill shred armor will with enough atk speed (manual or thru skills) can garner thousands of armor points enough to essentialy matter.

Dex is mainly used for dodge chance however their are diminshing returns to stating around over 100.Crit wise crit caps outside of beserk at I belive 75% (unsure) and in beserk it is 100% . If you do this you may also want to skill banner as it gives a dodge chance ( be sure not to go over the cap as its wasted stat points if you do )
You also get other benfits from beserk and it is fairly easy to maintain with excution, charge increasing items, atk speed, or skills that help build it such as banner, storm hatchet, etc largely removeing the advantage dex gives outside of low lvls.

Normaly you would stat focus for any dmg that does flat dmg(inculdeing phy like red wolf ) or is elemental % (weapon or skill). It also raises the the chance to perform an excution which not only does more dmg but also gains more charge(lessening the need to skill, stat, or gear towards this).It also relieves the need to gear or skill for mana regen as it increases your pool and regen. In genrale you can stat focus in torchlight 2 and if you pay attention to skills being elemental or flat dmg in nature and everthing will work out.

If your mainly useing percent dmg weapon skills you would stat mainly for str. This also gives crit dmg and has high synergy with the beserk charge.
The crit cap for crit dmg is I belive 500%.

Certain rare skills favor reaching the crit dmg cap(thru str) assumeing you reach the crit chance cap and the rest being focus argueablely wolf pack is one of these(emberquake is a known however it is not a beserker skill).

Also of note

It is advisable to have at least 1 lvl in blood hunger for the vast majority of builds.

rampage and shater storm are effective if lvled up but can also be one point wonders same as bloodhunger.

wolf shade is medicore at best until you invest heavily in it at which point it becomes a powerful summon and a good source of extra healing.

Im all but completly sure cold steel master effects the weapon calulations for skills if its a melee attack as far as a skill is concerned.

Certain passives go off or partialy go off with wolf pack and shadow bind and a few other skills in genrale wolf pack seems to work as if it were a melee attack for most effects even thought it functions more like a homming fireball type atk.

ice sheild reaches 100% block at lvl 11.

Claws go partialy thru defense. What you use is prefrance and such out side of say stating/gearing for excution or not, normaly youll use whatever you have the best gear of.

The damage reduction for battle rage counts towars the max reduction cap which I am unsure of but I belive is 75%(caps are for the most part 50% or 75%).


For more information I would suggest the runic forums and torchlight 2 armory.

[windbellsea]

I'm at level Lv 75 Elite NG+ Dual Claw Passive style.
Single Damage and AOE damage are never a problem since i have around 250 Health steal enchanted without blood hunger. And with Ravage and battle rage, junk mobs doesn't even last more than 5 seconds. Neither with the armor, you can easily boost your armor from 900 to 3-4k during a elite or boss fight through shred armor. It only takes me 5 hit to get into frenzy status which constantly crits any mob 14-19k each hit. It won't even take a minute for any boss fight.

When you see a group of mob with elite one in there, your first reaction will always be checking your battle rage and ice shield buff (if there's range mob), put down the battle stand, rush in, pop out Ravage, hit as many mob as you can to gain enough armor, then focus auto attack or Ravage elite one till death while you last stand with full hp. However, the only problem is initiate. As LastMonoblos mentioned above "Leathal damage taken past armor before you can humanly react". It's like gambling all the time, 1 out of 50 times you will find this one mob who can do stupidly high damage (Physical or Magic) in one shot before you gain enough armor or any health steal. And you just can't do anything about it rather than manually walk away while it does that next time.

As R.R mentioned VIT and DEX scaled poorly since you hit the diminishing return cap easily with Battle Rage and Battle stand. you will have steady 75% dodge 75% damage reduction, and 100% critical all the time. The only matter is health. And VIT doesn't do much good with health compare to Health Ember, such as Meerko Skull +538 HP (Equal to +177 VIT). The only problem with passive style build is around early level before you get Ravage, it is way much painful to clear a group of junks as a Berserker than Mage or outlander. The only option will be Eviscerate or Shadow Burst if you don't want the focus build style. However both skills are highly depend on your mana pool which will end up with a long dragging fight. At NG+ after you hit 50+, it's much easier compare to first round as a Berserker in Elite Mode. Stupidly fast map run, the only class can compare to that I guess will be Poison Style focus build double wand Outlander, but much enjoyable than poison and run.

If you want to stick with this style, You will have Hight Critical Rate, High Charge Rate, High Armor Rating (after ravage), High Dodge Rate, Fast Trash Clearing, High Damage, and the only matter become survivability for that one shot which you never know when.

you will end up with roughly 30 points that you don't know how to spend since it really doesn't do much difference if you max it or just leave it at level 10.

Hunter Tree:
Howl: 10-15, The reason it could be level 10 is because at end game, you won't worry about slowing their casting speed or attacking speed cuz they die really fast no matter what, neither the armor since you have shred armor. You will find that Movement reduction extremely useful after the skill hit level 10. It is very dangerous when you focus on a mob which is running around that you can't steady hit and steal health. This is slowing down your grinding and leave you vulnerable . That's what it is for.

Battle Rage: 10-15, Same reason as above, doesn't do much difference as lv 10 or lv 15 due to diminishing return, you will easily hit 75% physical damage reduction and the additional damage bonus is really not worth that 5 points which you can experience with other spells.

Ravage: 15, The reason for a 15 skill point is not because of it's extra 7-8% weapon dps, but tier 3 Range bonus. The further you can hit with this spell, the less chance you need to recast it. That's all this level 15 about.

Blood hunger, Executioner, Rampage, 1 point each is a must. That additional Charge rate increase bonus from Executioner which is a buff overtime helps you gain charge faster You might can level up Executioner to 5 point before you hit diminishing return depending on your enchant and gears. And that Rampage is just surprisingly good with 1 point only due to the reason that you will almost get Rampage every time when you use ravage in a group of mob. Not mention the level 1 blood hunger has 5% health steal from critical against it's 0.5% increase after level 1. However, blood hunger is a Special Case might need 15/15. The reason is not for that extra 7% with 14 skill point. It is because it is the only health steal skill available when you use Ravage! Sounds ridiculous right? Any Gem enchantment or weapon proc prefix health steal doesn't work with Ravage! It leaves you so vulnerable during that 1-2 seconds. And if you constantly use it against boss with ideally infinity mana pool, YOU WILL DIE! But if you have 14% Blood hunger, you can expect to have roughly 1k hp steal everytime you crit which leaves you more reasonable response time before any drama happens. However it is really your choice depending on your play style, either auto attack all the time, or fast paced single button ravage.

Tundra Tree:
Storm Claw: 1 (You can do it, but not my style) It's not like i haven' t used this skill yet, but i found quite annoying with this spell. It is useful to have a bit AOE to clearing the trash in early game. But you will realize so many buff you have to check before you engage a fight eventually. You have Battle Rage, Battle Stand, Elemental Protection (possible), Ice Shield (possible) and then 20 seconds storm Claw. Is it a joke they made it 20 seconds? Besides, you don't have enough mana for every single buff above in early game. So I gave up the skill as soon as my Ravage can pretty much do everything for AOE.

Ice Shield: 10 For obvious reason, 100% reflection from range attack, and 80% charge boost during group fight. I don't see why you need another 5 point for 25% dps which they should have died before they getting killed by that 25%

Cold Steel Master: 15, Not only for DPS, but ICE damage bonus as well since you won't spend much point in focus, this is similar to the Fire Bonus in Engineer Tree.

Shatter Storm: 1 is a must as well, which gives you occasionally immobilization to crowd control and shorter your running time.

Rage Retaliation: 1 120% Weapon DPS? Sure, 1 point for another 0.2 out of 2 seconds? No!

Shadow Trees:
Shadow Burst: 1-15, This is also a controversial spell, 1 point is a must. But it really depends on your play style to choose whether max it or leave it as 1. It does a more effective job on healing than Blood hunger. But also consumes quite a bit mana at same time. And the damage is just fair in Elite mode. I believe it will be main skill in Normal mode which you can clear most of the trash in 2-3 times before you run out of mana. But I've been using it while I was really out of options at early level in elite and it drags the fight up to 2-3 mins with 4+ mana potion poped. Yes you can survival with this spell, but not an DPS option for long run. Health steal enchant will soon replace extra point in this spell when you gear up.

Battle Stand: 10-15 You will soon realize the battle stand become less worth to invest point in there after it hit 10 due to the diminishing return on 75% dodge and enough 88% knockback resist and almost guarantee 5 hit into Frenzy with or without it . It might only do good with it's mana regeneration which allows you to cast Ravage unstoppable. And those are only needed in boss or elite fight.

Shred Armor: 15 This skill is just amazingly good, you can easily get up to 1k armor in early level which is higher than a Construct Sword Shield Tanking Engineer. And up to 4k Armor during a boss fight at level 60+ which makes any boss summoned mob attacking around you like a scratch. However it does leave me some concern about it's armor steal due to Claw Weapons ignore the armor completely. So beside the armor boost on character, does it really suggest go for higher DPS very fast sword instead of Claw?

Red Wolf: 1, it is essential since you don't have much option in early game. But for late game, 1k red wolf vs 10k ravage crit? come on, do the math.

As I mentioned above, this build with essential skills leave you almost 30 points unspended, You might find interesting from invest some points in Tundra tree for better crowd control and additional frost damage, However, without those points, you will do just fine in end game of elite as a passive Berserker.

Word of advice, it will require a lot of Macro and reacting in early level since you lack of options compare to other build. But it definitely rules in late game. And it's gear and enchant depended as well. health steal on both weapon is a must, damage reduction or Health on armor. STR or FOC gem if you just after the high level gears. You will need Dex just enough to equip the gears or weapons and STR for Sword if you going that way. Few points in Focus for necklace is necessary. Last VIT is just a joke if it is not for the gear really.

[Rebuffer]

Im lvl 100 NG+2, veteran, it was my first character. Here is my build: http://torchlight2armory.com/skill-calc?i=1#rpsKL4Z-yD308ARPtzPzYOOCFF

I read a lot about the class 'cause I had the same questions that some people here explain the answers, turns out that it worked pretty well, I have a great survavility and also a high damage, 10k per hit aprox.
Im a claw person 'cause i've noticed that the damage made its higger than with swords. I have this one in both hands: http://torchlight2armory.com/item?i=3033375139836538483 you can buy it from any randomer seller, if im not wrong it cost is 11k

[76561198867601827]

Amazing discussion here. Will the "21% damage to secondary targets" work with Claws? since claws doesn't have cleave/splash by nature. A legit answer might be very critical knowledge to those trying to understand this gem =s

[ADEC Inc]

It won't, for the very reason you guessed. Shadowbind will do the job much more effectively.