The Berserker Barbarian





I love my barbarian. Dueling with a pure berserker means most people will die in 1-3 hits. This whole idea came to me after I was levelling my bvc for duelling to lvl 97. I have looked up the old guides but they did not satisfy my hunger for speed and awesomeness. So after countless runs and different setups I have achieved what in my eyes is the best berserker barbarian out to this day. I have used him against my friends to see who would run Diablo, Nilathak and Baal the fastest. All my friends were surprised how I was able to beat them every time.
So here is how I did it....



Stats

Strength - Enough to wear coa (around 10-20)
Dex - None (unless wearing a shield...)
Vitality - Everything
Energy - None



Skills

+ 20 Berserk - main skill obviously
+ 20 Weapon Mastery - depending on which one you are going with
+ 20 Battle Orders - life and mana
+ 20 Howl - synergy and scares away monsters
+ 20 Shout - synergy and defence (max out last)
+ 1 Battle Command
+ 1 Natural Resistances
+ 1 Frenzy - Surprisingly very useful
+ 1 Increased Speed - a must for anyone who wants to be fast
+ 1 Leap - great for stun
+ 1 Wirlwind - optional for pvp only


+1 Pre Requisites



Gear for PvM

Option 1 - Balance

Griefz + Beastz
Enigma (highest light armour you can wear)
Coa (ber, ber)
Arach (20fcr)
Highlords
Laying of Hands: (+350% ed vs Demons yay!)
Gores
Ravenfrost
Rare ring (10fcr, ar, str, life, mana, resists)

On Switch
Hoto (40fcr)
Spirit (35fcr)


Merc - Might

Guillaumes face (40ed/15dmg)
Eth Reapers Toll (ber) - Decriplify!!!
Eth Treachery Archon Plate


A great mix of offence and defence. This is my preferred set up.
Make sure the zerkers are NOT superior otherwise you will pay a lot of coin for repairs. They are very cheap to maintain you just repair them at the same time you repair the rest of your gear.




Option 2 - Never Repair

Grief pb + eDeath cb
Enigma (highest light armour you can wear)
Guillaumes (40ed/15dmg)
Arach (20fcr)
Highlords
Laying of Hands: (+350% ed vs Demons yay!)
Gores
Ravenfrost
Rare ring (10fcr, ar, str, life, mana, resists)

On Switch
Hoto (40fcr)
Spirit (35fcr)


Merc - Might

Guillaumes face (40ed/15ias)
Eth Reapers Toll (shael) - Decriplify!!!
Eth Treachery Archon Plate

This option you lose the fanatism aura and the extra range and damage from zerkers for the trade off to never repair again. Your mercenary wont be as powerful either losing CB from ber to maintain decent speed with shael. I replaced coa for guillaumes to make up for the lost damage and cb but survival might be an issue.




Option 3 - Offence

Griefz + Beastz
Enigma (highest light armour you can wear)
Guillaumes (40ed/9dmg)
Arach (20fcr)
Highlords
Laying of Hands: (+350% ed vs Demons yay!)
Gores
Ravenfrost
Rare ring (10fcr, ar, str, life, mana, resists)

On Switch
Hoto (40fcr)
Spirit (35fcr)


Merc - Might

Guillaumes face (40ed/15dmg)
Eth Reapers Toll (ber) - Decriplify!!!
Eth Treachery Archon Plate


Fire it up!!! this guy shoots first asks questions later. If you like playing kamikaze style
this is your man.




Option 4 - Defence

Griefz + Beastz
Enigma (highest light armour you can wear)
Coa (ber, ber)
Arach (20fcr)
Highlords
Dracs - life leech
Gores
Ravenfrost
Rare ring (10fcr, ar, str, life, mana, resists)

On Switch
Hoto (40fcr)
Spirit (35fcr)


Merc - Holy freeze

Guillaumes face (40/15)
Eth Reapers Toll (ber) - Decriplify!!!
Eth Treachery Archon Plate


Those who just love to never ever die. Lets see Decreplify + Holy Freeze + Life Tap (from dracs) + Howl = Never die




Option 5 - Shielder

Grief pb + Stormshield (eld/jewel)
Enigma (highest light armour you can wear)
Guillaumes face (40ed/15dmg or um)
Arach (20fcr)
Highlords
Laying of Hands: (+350% ed vs Demons yay!)
Gores
Ravenfrost
Rare ring (10fcr, ar, str, life, mana, resists)

On Switch
Hoto (40fcr)
Spirit (35fcr)


Merc - Might

Eth Andarial Visage (40ed/15ias) - going to need that life leech
Eth Pride ca - 345%ed from lvl20 concentration
Eth Treachery Archon Plate


For those who just can't part without a shield. Yes this set up works well but you will lose speed.
Fanatism is gone you can't use frenzy which is so great for bosses and killing many monsters.
Your mercenary is simply there to give you dmg boost he wont be killing much. You also have to pump dexterity for max block
which takes away from your life, but look on the bright side you have block!!!


*Note: You will have to have 1/2 of your belt filled with mana pots the other 1/2 is full juvs.
The reality is you need to buy mana pots for tele. I usually just pick them up in baal drops.




Gear for PvP

Griefz + Beastz
Enigma (highest light armour you can wear)
Coa (ber, ber) or Arreats (40ed/15dmg) if you don’t need DR
Arach (20fcr)
Highlords
Trangs/Steelrends
Gores
x2 Ravenfrost

On Switch
x2 Hoto - for bo



Inventory

Torch - 20/20
Anni - 20/20/10
x9 Gcs - 10dmg/76ar/45life
3/20/20 scs (fills up any left over space)
20/5all res scs (about 3 of these or until you have all resists maxed)
*for pvp make sure to grab x4 fhr scs to reach that break point



Stash

Cube (if you like to do some mfing for storage)
Guillaumes face (40ed, life jewel) - for those who feel they can easily survive without coa
Dracs - life tap
Doomz - only vs smiters/zons (optional)
Wisps
Dwarfs
Angelics - Probably won't use since zerk has high ar already and smiters will generally kill u
Kiras - resist stack
Tgods
Dungos
Hotspurs
Steelrends - for pvp if you dont need trangs
Ondals - for lvling only
+ Anything else you think may be nesessary




PvM Strategy for running bosses

Diablo

Make sure to go to Act 4 in after each game.
That way you save some time running to Diablo.
Go through River of Flame Wp. Proceed to bo yourself and merc.
Tele to Vizier in chaos. Open seal. Howl monsters and switch to zerks, once Vizier pops up tele on top and zerk him.
For deSeis oblivion knights I recommend you never tele on top just in case he spawns with fanat and amps you. Just walk up howl minions and zerk. Infector is too easy just finish him. Out comes Diablo start frenzy. Yep this will cb and wreck him pretty good. Then switch to zerk to finish the job. Tele to Infector. He is a joke. When you hit the last seal tele to star. Wait for Diablo to come up.
First 1/2 of his life use frenzy, switch to zerk and on the last sliver of health frenzy him again. Make a tp to town and with super buffed speed from frenzy go to get Nilathak

Nilathak

It would make your life easier to know which way to tele.
Here it is
Lvl 2 - there are two ways if you happen to spawn in far right corner just travel across to the opposite corner in the middle then travel up.
If you spawn in top corner travel down right after a few runs you will catch on.
Lvl 3 - as you enter lvl 3 tele around the roundabout. While looking at the murals on the wall. The way to Nilathak will have eyes on two walls of the corridor.
If it has only one wall with eyes then it’s not the way.
Nilathak is not the problem. The vipers are the most dangerous, especially if you tele into a big pack. Your merc will die almost inevitably if you do that. When you reach Nilathak tele all the way to the back wall.
From there howl then switch zerk him.

Baal

Join the rest of the team hopefully you make it to wave 3-4 of Baal.
Use frenzy

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Alternatively get Ondals and just leech xp in baal runs




PvP Strategy

Zerk lock - Left click on opponent. Your barb will try and walk towards enemy and
hit them with zerk. While holding this bring mouse to centre of screen (just underneath your crotch).
Now have teleport ready on right click. Gently tap right click, this will bring you on top of your target.
Now re-click zerk on their name. You will begin zerking immediately. If they escape just tap
right click and repeat.
Note: you must have their name highlighted otherwise will not tele on top. Make sure to
re-centre your mouse since you will have to re-click it. Be vary of summons when you tele
on top, sometimes you will zerk click on the minions instead of your opponent. Practice
this on a friend's sorc, if you can get 3 in the row without loosing the lock you are ready for duelling.

here is how it’s done >>>>>>>>>



Frenzy is a surprisingly useful skill in pvp. With 20 berserk you will have 20% magical dmg synergy which is unblockable. Frenzy really helps vs sorcs and zons chase them down.

If you like you may invest 1 pt into ww to use against smiters but I would rather leap + frenzy them.

Sadly you will find smiters and other barbs challenging.
Other then that you will do rather well vs casters



FAQ

Q: How fast is this guy?

A: This barbarian has 105FCR which is one of the highest cast rates in the game. Next being 200 (but pointless to go there). Barbarian has same FCR break points as a sorceress. Making him very fast.
Other guides have 63FCR - you would make them look bad just with this factor alone.



Q: 2 Axes never seen that on a berserker?

A: Old set up was grief pb + ss. This worked fine but here is why 2 axes are better.
First things first with fanat aura you are able to easily reach 9fpa (fastest zerk speed).
Secondly you and your merc gain more damage and ar from fanat. You do more damage with axes. The only advantage had was block and no repair. But with the merc you will never need it.



Q: Where is the shield how will I survive?

A: Yes I know defence drops to 0 when you zerk and without a shield this leaves you
wide open for attack. However after countless runs reaching lvl 97 with my berserker
I can safely say you will never need it. You have coa (ber, ber) + nigma to give you plenty of dr.
You have howl to scare away any monster use it. Chaos can be nasty at times This gives you breathing room.
Leap - this will stun your enemies. Just do small hops very useful especially vs deSeis, but if you don’t use/need it then save it for something else.
Your merc will be your weapon of destruction and will make things surprisingly safe for you.
Decreplify will be cast within seconds making all attacks on you almost useless.
If you are really scared then get a holy freeze instead of might merc << I am telling you with this setup you can tele naked it’s too safe. So throw away your ss in the garbage bin.



Q: Why not lawbringer A3 merc?

A: These guys do alright but not good enough to be pro. A2 might merc with recommended setup will be a killer. Unfortunately after countless of runs I am going to have to say A3 mercs suck.
Not only is the knockback from sanctuary pushed Vizier into lava which makes it annoying as hell and consumes lots of time. But the merc by himself can’t kill anything.
Your new A2 merc will hit the fastest ias with your fanat aura. He will do unbelievable damage.
He can if you let him easily kill all the waves and Baal if you let him. In fact he doesn’t need any assistance he is a killing machine. Not only that but he provides you with decrep which is your safety and might aura for even faster killing speed. No question about it best merc ever!

Another nice advantage about this build is that it can easily be rerolled into bvc with very minimal gear swaps.


Enjoy!!!

I hope you like it

Again
Beastz + griefz will always be a terrible pvm choice

rofl, pvp gear failed totally, I guess pvm too, w/e.

I suggest keeping spam to a minimum.
Thanks

Seem's like a well put together guide very easy to read.

Good Job.

Yeah... Griefz and Beastz...

And it isn't spam, it's responses to your "guide"

Just saying it sux without a reason is spam.
I have listed several options for different people. Only a moron would say griefz + beastz suck.
They either haven't tried it or crying about spending a few shackles for repairs that's all.

Everyone has different tastes and skill ability.
All the listed options work very well

If you have an issue here is a tissue.

Here is an old version barb with 2 axes

Just to give u an idea of how to run chaos

That was p1 and you didn't kill diablo. Any barb with enigma and oath can do the same.