Dual Wielder Berzerker – 100% of chance to cast Lightning to damage multiple enemies all the time

This is what I call a Lightning Berserker - the AOE Berserker.

Updates

2016

29/01: Added a image to Gear/Gems section

2020 we are quarantined :(

28/05: Check ADEC Inc at the comments for some enlightening ideas for this build of mine

Hello

Hi, this is my third guide and today I'll show you what I call a Lightning Berserker.

Out of the box builds

This is my second "out of the box" build. I created this because TL2 is already saturated with the common builds like Prismatic Bolt build, Poison Outlander, Fire Engineer, etc.

I want to do crazy builds which nobody ever thought about it (and if they thought, they never wrote a guide to share it). I hope you guys enjoy the reading as much as I enjoyed the levelling up and the writing.

1. Savage Rush Berserker with 50% of chance to cast Meteor Strike
   
2. Dual Wielder Berserker with 100% of chance to cast Lightning

Questions you may have had

How easily can I play this build?

You only need to get 2 Netherblades. That's all. If you already have a level 100 character you problably found one of these and either sold or kept in your stash. I hope you did the latter. Anyway, if you don't have those and don't want to farm them, go to Easy way to get the Netherblades section.

What's the difference between this "Lightning Dual Wielder" and the standard ones?

The main difference is the AOE damage. While standard ones mostly uses Claws they have very little AOE damage (which, interesting enough, comes from 1 point on Stormclaw). My Dual Wielder has 100% of chance to cast Lightning, which means that almost all of your attacks will affect more than 1 enemie.

Is this Elite viable?

If standard Dual Wielders are, why would mine not be? I would say my build is better for normal enemies and slightly worse for bosses.

Videos to watch and check if it is worthy your time

Fastpaced playthrough on Elite

Weapons

The two swords we will use are the Netherblades. Interesting enough, there are 2 versions of this sword (I didn't know that until I began to write this guide) which are the following:



As you can see, I highlighted the differences: the first one has Fire and Ice damage (I'm ignoring the enchantment in green) and the second one has Physical and Electric damage.

Attention!!

I found a bug regarding the damage of these two "different" swords. It appears that the lower the Strength the higher is the gap between the damage output of the two weapons; the same way, the higher the Strength the lower is the gap between the damage output of the two weapons. Let me give you some numbers.


I tested this with different Strength levels and I concluded I was right; the Fire/Ice version is slightly better. And it becomes even better with the Cold Steel Mastery at level 15.


By the time you get to use the Netherblade (at level 92 or 285 Strength) the higher damage of Fire/Ice is barely noticeable, so you don't need to freak out if you find the Electric/ Physical version.

TL;DR: Use whatever version you find.

Gear/ Gems

I merged this two subjects into one because, in my build, they are dependent from each other.
You have basically two options:

• Equip whatever gear you want, which is perfectly fine;
  
• Use my gear of survivability/damage.

I actually "stole" this build from Elite Dual Wielders because I loved the thoughts behind it. It is a pretty confortable build to both do damage and survive. You will use:

• 5 pieces of the Harbinget set.
  
• 4 pieces of the Dragonrift set.
  OBS: You will have one slot free to use whatever you want. The 4th and 5th bonuses from Dragonrift and Harbinger are bad.
  The reason for these numbers is to get the 20% health stolen from Dragonrift which is huge.
  For the Dragonrift: 2 rings, Boots and Chest;
  For the Harbinger: everything else except Necklace.
  
  These gear will lead to:
  
  
  OBS2: If you don't know, there are two versions of the Harbinget set: the Draketalon and the Harbinger. Besides Necklace, Boots and Chest, if you have the gear or time to farm, consider put every slot with Draketalon equipment and only the Gloves with Harbinger. I evaluated each version of each type and I concluded these are the best.
  
  To use the full potencial of this gear, put Health stolen on hit sockets on your swords (I recommend Yololo skull which gives 282). By the way put them on different swords so when you execute you double your health stolen output.
  
  Assuming your swords have 2 slots each, put in the remaining sockets Vellinque skulls (+200 Physical damage) because obvious reasons. Besides the auto attack increased damage, it also increases the damage of Stormclaw.

Stats

As every standard Dual Wielder, put points into Strength and Dexterity until you hit that sweet spot called 110 or 120 points in Dexterity; after this, put everything in Strength.

For Veteran and Elite players, add some Vitality into the mix to not be so squishy. A 3 Strength/ 1 Dexterity/ 1 Vitality is the way to go I guess.

Skills

Hunter tree

Howl (15 points)
In my opinion this is the most powerful skill of the game. You debuff your enemies to the ground and tell them to kiss your feet if you are asking what this skill does. Next.

Wolfstrike (15 points)
A underrated skill only because Shadow Burst (the healing dash) exists. Since this build is already great for the healing part, we don't need to exaggerate. At level 15 it inflicts 144% of your DPS, it knockbacks your enemies and has 75% of chance to stun them for 3 seconds. It is great to dash at champions, stun and finish them quickly.
PS: If you are a ♥♥♥♥♥, take Shadow Burst instead.

Blood Hunger (at least 1 point)
As I said before, we already have a lot of healing. One point here is a must but anything above 5 points is too much.

Executioner (15 points)
Execute chance and Charge rate increased? Thanks, I'll have it.


Rampage (15 points)
Well, I love the movement speed and attack speed buffs from this skill. I will allow you to skip this if you think it is unworthy of your points.

Tundra tree

Stormclaw (15 points)
Our reason for existing. This skill is a must-have is almost all Berserker build (at least 1 point) but in this guide it is a must-have-maximized. Deeper skill explanation and analysis on the next topic.

Iceshield (10 points)
Another must have skill. 10 points to have 100% to reflect missiles; you don't need more than 100%, do you?

Rage Retaliation (15 points)
This is the real underrated skill. It actually is pretty good. With your higher DPS the enemie who decides to strike you will regret. A lot. It sucks at lower levels so I recommend you to put points here at higher levels.

Shadow tree

Savage Rush (1 point)
Just for the sake of move fast on empty parts. Nothing else.


Frenzy Mastery (15 points)
More than duplicates your Frenzy time. Must have.


Shred Armor (at least 5 points)
AT LEAST 5 POINTS? WHAT??? Calm down. I know most people maximize this on every build and every difficulty but they shouldn't. Why? Because with 5 points you already have a lot of "armor penetration". More than that you are either wasting points or you are in a higher difficulty. On Veteran and Elite 8 points is enough.


You will have some points left. Put them into Blood Hunger or Shred Armor if you don't wanna trust me.
A special thanks for a friend who explained a lot of things about a lot of skills here.

A study about Stormclaw

• When you strike a enemie a lightning will go from this enemie (not causing damage to him) to another one (and cause damage to him).
  
• The damage of the lightning will crit if the attack who created it crit too.
  
• The damage of the lightning is based on Weapon Damage, not Weapon DPS.
  
• It can chain up according to the level skill.
  Level 1-4: 2 times.
  Level 5-9: 3 times.
  Level 10-14: 4 times.
  Level 15: 5 times.

Spells

For you

Dual Wielding
Extra damage for you. Period.

Weapon Expertise
More extra damage. Great!

Haste
This is must-have. Really. It lasts X seconds and its cooldown is X seconds, which means Extra Movement Speed FOREVER.

Armor Expertise
Extra armor because you are not an engineer, right? It doesn’t hurt to be a little more safe.


OBS: You may use Adventuring and Treasure Hunter as well while levelling up.

For your pet

The pet is here just for leading the way and get the attention of enemies while you beat the heck out of them.
No big secret, put all the Summon Spells you can find. Perhaps a Heal All tome or Silence for more survivability.

How to play on early levels

Well, apart from the Netherblades and the Stormclaw level 15, this build is basically a standard Dual Wielder. Play a normal Berserker and level up the skills mentioned in the guide and that's all folks. If you want a in-depth guide about levelling up from level 1 to 100 I recommend searching other builds. I'm not good at this and I don't want to misguide you.

Easy way to get the Netherblades

First, if you don’t have console enabled, enabled it!! https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/85552/how-do-i-enable-the-console
If you don’t want to grind to get those, do this:

1. Create a new character (you may choose any class)
   
2. Put on your console the following commands:
   levelup 99
   dungeon qatest
   money 100000000000000
   
3. Go to the Seller of Unidentified Items
   
   
4. Buy all the swords he has
   
5. Did you get your Netherblades? Yes? Then put them on your Shared Stash so your new Berserker can get them
   
6. Did you get your Netherblades? No? Then go to the portal to reload the area and repeat the step 3 until you get them.
   
   
   TL;DR: Watch
   Is this a cheat? Maybe. It depends on you because it is YOUR GAME .

Conclusion

Finally. This guide was the easiest to do. This is the second guide of my series of "out of the box" builds. There are more coming! Stay tuned (follow me or just check the tl2 guides every once in a while).

[Meci Careca]

Como eu jogo os lvls iniciais? nunca joguei o jogo antes.

[FeelsBadMan]

OMG the way you mow down those monsters...its like you activated a god mode cheat lol. I've only ever used Claws so you know >_<

[Musa do Verao]

@ADEC Inc
Damn, lots of mistakes for the past me. And I thought I knew a lot. I won't update this (and my others) guides cause I don't play anymore and I'm not confident to rewrite it an understandable way. I will however leave a note at the beginning mentioning your corrections. If you wish to rewrite yourself I can add you as a contributor.

And yeah, that cheating method is basically gambling but easier because of the unlimited money, as gambling is IIRC very expensive.

Thanks for comment

[ADEC Inc]

cont.

You may want to mention some easier alternatives as well, like the Feral, Regent, or True North sets. As long as you have at least 20% health stolen, you won't need any Yololo skulls.
A berserker only needs as much dex as their gear demands. Frenzy takes care of the rest. Vitality is not as good as +HP bonuses on armor.
Shred Armor is typically maxed because it adds armor to you even if your enemy has no more armor to lose. Thus you could easily replace Armor Expertise. Barter is very good for those expensive enchanters and gamblers. Gambling, incidentally, is a great way to get uniques like Netherblade without cheating. :)

[ADEC Inc]

Now for some constructive feedback on this guide itself.
This won't truly give you 100% chance for Lightning, but three separate Lightning procs which could all potentially go off on any attack. Still nothing to sneeze at.
The difference you see between the two Netherblades is not a bug, but the intended effect of strength on all types of weapon damage. Without str, the physical damage of the weapon will only increase with bonuses such as Cold Steel Mastery.

[ADEC Inc]

@Horus-fr Wow, I'm embarrassed that someone whose guides I've recommended to others before has such a terrible attitude and still manages to get things wrong besides. Dual wield is not only viable at any difficulty but is definitively the way to maximize dps. Damage enchants and sockets add far more dps to faster onehanded weapons than to slow twohanders, to the point where they eventually outpace them completely, and offhand weapons can still contribute attack speed bonuses to main hand attacks. Let's also not forget that this is an autoattack build with percentage lifesteal, so it is functionally immortal unless one-shot killed. Healing to full with every swing is far better protection than a shield can ever offer. And while I don't advocate cheating either, there's no sense decrying a build that relies on hard-to-find items while also praising Wolfpack which doesn't even get started until the game is practically over.

[Horus-fr]

it's not my rules it's how the game works ;)
not my fault if skills only use 1 hand not my fault if the second weapon makes you lose damage not my fault if dexterity and vitality are useless etc...just saying, a brand new player trying this on console is not going to have fun at all

[Horus-fr]

https://youtu.be/oq7kLQwWjzo?t=490 it's elite hardcore with no enchanted gear and mostly items i bought in town other than the socketables
check the armor value and then watch what wolfpack does, every cast i do 7x250k thats nearly 1.8mio per cast of wolfpack with no enchants, you can do that x10 with +strength enchants etc then you'll do 18mio par cast, please no dual wield and no execute
keep in mind thats against +40 +100 levels mobs in elite, in lesser difficulty you barely see mobs with that build you 1shot the screen most of the time, it's not to brag or say it's better it's just to show people that "fun" and "meta correct" are two different things and when you play elite "fun" doesnt work anymore because it's usually weak

[Musa do Verao]

@Horus-fr
You just chill out lol

I was paying attention to what you said until you said me I can't cheat or play a build I want because by your "rules" I am trash. Guess I can't play my damn game anymore cause some random said me not to do it.

[Horus-fr]

there are no elite viable dual wield, only cheaters can play that and it will still be trash because it's not how the game works
skills like ravage only take 1 hand into account (right hand) which means that with a much more powerful two handed you'd do way more damage, endgame you dont need execute at all because of how fast you charge anyway, executeb animation is often slower than a fast single hand weapon meaning that bonus damage you get is often lost and for execute to be any good you need 75% or more which means endgame and at endgame your regular skills will do 100x more damage anyway I could go on forever sorry nothing against you sad to see all those people playing the game wrong, try to play elite or even veteran hardcore without cheating or respecing, self found items and you will see that this build does not work at all