I already posted this in a response in general discussion, so I thought i'd repost it here with some additional information and slight edits for context.
Here's how I built my HC zerker - it's never come close to dying and has even survived disconnects. It's the best P1 character in the game, and you can easily hit 500MF/1400GF while using find item.
There's the standard version you use for travincal (which is where it excels and the only place I use mine) and a few gear swaps you can make for doing pits or other content. You'll have 77% find item on both versions, in trav you'll focus on maxing out your goldfind and outside of it on your magic find. You'll have 4500-5000HP (depending on charms) and 51%DR with max block...and you still 1-2 hit everything. Resistances are overcapped on both versions.
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Skills - Max berserk, find potion, find item, battle orders, 1 point in passives & battle command, 1 into leap if you want it, 1 into blade mastery...dump remaining points into blade mastery (or howl - a zerk synergy; i never use howl, it slows us down too much...but we don't lose much by increasing this instead of mastery, so if you want to go for it)
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Gear -
Stormshield (UM)
Shako (cham)
Engima (dusk shroud)
War Travs
Highlords amulet
Arachnid mesh
X2 10FCR rings for general zerking to teleport faster or two dwarf stars for trav (not for the fire sorb - we laugh at hydras - but for 100%GF each)
Laying of Hands or Chance guards - always chance for trav, you can choose between either for general zerking (outside of trav go for LoH for more freedom with charms IMO)
Grief in Phaseblade - any IAS works, look for highest possible damage roll - you can drop LoH and use chance guards while still hitting IAS cap.
Grief in Berserker axe (+1 range but you have to repair). Put points into axe mastery instead of blade, now we need LoH + Highlords AND a roll of 35+IAS or better on the grief. The extra range is nice, but repairs are a pain...I really only recommend berserk axe if you are sticking to travincal since you're killing 11 council members in 1-2 hits and the repairs won't be so frequent. It's undeniably better - you will "feel" it - but it's just a small improvement. Outside of trav i'd always go phaseblade.
Inventory -- Gheeds, 6X warcry GC (1-2 with FHR, rest with life or extra gold), 1-3 small charms with FHR + add to hit either 17 or 27 breakpoint. Rest is up to you and depends on if you're using chance guards or laying of hands.
Merc for travincal -- A2 might with eth insight, eth CoH, and eth andariels visage with 15ias/30FR jewel. We don't need cure - we are always amped from Ismael. You can also use an EBOTD for an additional 15%LL on the merc and even more damage. I prefer insight since mana pots are no longer needed incase of manaburn.
ETH infinity is also a reasonable option if you don't care about budget.
Merc for general berserking -- A2 might with eth insight, eth CoH, eth Cure. Insight is now mandatory for extended teleporting mana sustain. Helm: we can get by without cure, but why? Amplify damage is our most likely way to die...CURE! CURE!
Belt - 1 row of super healing potions (berserk doesn't leach), rest is full rejuv, 1 scroll of TP in one of the rows. You will rarely even need to pot, just the LAEK on enigma will sustain you in overworld and even in trav i'm rarely potting with heals. Rejuvs are almost never touched (maybe for 1 in 25 runs when your amped merc is tanking a full pack)
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Swap (find item)-- I always go two ali babas, double lemmed for trav or double IST for any other zerking. You can do 6os IST or LEM phases, I prefer the stat spread of baba's. You can't really go wrong here.
Swap (teleporting) -- For travincal the vast majority of transit time is running through A3 in town. Arachnids mesh helps us hit a faster teleport breakpoint, but we're really using it to speed up the FCR on find item -- you will feel a big difference going from 0--->20% FCR, and the +1 skill is needed to hit 77% find item. So for travincal we will stick with 20FCR for our teleports.
If you're outside of travincal you can hit 40FCR with two 10FCR rings and you can just tele on your main hand side with 51%DR and maxed block - you can make an argument for teleporting on swap, where you change your alibaba's to double hoto or hoto+spirit etc. to hit faster teleport breakpoints. If you want faster teleport speeds, go for it!
I've tried both ways and vastly prefer this main hand teleporting (probably since I use a controller on the PS5 and teleport distance is fixed. I'm sure this is different for people with mouse+keyboard and I suggest you just try what feels most comfortable for you, both versions are viable)
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Outside of trav -- this char can perform outside but he excels in travincal. IMO go with that variant and leave other areas for...any other characters. You can expand to a few other areas like the pit if you can find them quickly (offline/static maps change this equation and make him far more viable than with randomized online maps), but I
find that the static map, clustered council members, and the ability to quickly enter/leave travincal to be be of great value if we aren't using maphack.
This should cover everything, please let me know if you have any feedback or additional tweaks. I'm happy to answer any questions!
Shout out to Exokek the travincal master for helping me figure some of this out many years ago
D2:R