Transforms Burst Mode into an always-on Mayhem Mode, dealing sustained damage.
Berserker
Community Guide
LAST UPDATED
November 26, 2025
November 26, 2025
Editors
Deca, Swoop
General Information
This guide is created by community members as a compilation of class related information. This is not meant as a new player guide; if you are a new player we suggest reading Maxroll’s Build Guides instead. If you have any feedback or want to help with class discussions, join our Discord! You can toggle builds you want to see at the top.
How does my identity work?
Like Slayer, Berserker has a Fury meter that is filled by hitting the enemy with any attacks, and can be activated once full to enter Burst Mode.
While in Burst Mode, you are provided with the following effects:
- 20% Attack and Movement Speed and 30% Crit Rate
- Access to Berserker’s strongest skill, Bloody Rush (Z) which deals significant damage and has additional Push Immunity, Weak Point, and Stagger
Burst Mode can be cancelled with the X key.
After Burst Mode ends, a non-removable exhaustion debuff prevents you from gaining Fury meter from attacks for 30 seconds, unless you have the Body Activation Ark Passive activated.
How do the two builds compare?
Mayhem
Berserker's Technique
Summary
Focuses on quickly cycling in and out of Burst Mode, dealing frequent bursts of damage.
Pros
- Relatively mobile
- Straightforward rotation
- Easy to pick up and understand
- High amount of Push Immunity
- Significantly higher damage ceiling
Cons
- Lower damage ceiling than Berserker’s Technique
- Relatively immobile
- Long animation locks
- Heavily dependent on hitting all skills
- Needs to manage drifting cooldowns or hit more back attacks
Mayhem
Summary
Transforms Burst Mode into an always-on Mayhem Mode, dealing sustained damage.
Pros
- Relatively mobile
- Straightforward rotation
- Easy to pick up and understand
Cons
- Lower damage ceiling than Berserker’s Technique
Berserker's Technique
Summary
Focuses on quickly cycling in and out of Burst Mode, dealing frequent bursts of damage.
Pros
- High amount of Push Immunity
- Significantly higher damage ceiling
Cons
- Relatively immobile
- Long animation locks
- Heavily dependent on hitting all skills
- Needs to manage drifting cooldowns or hit more back attacks
Chaos Dungeon
Whirlwind
Level 14
Tempest Slash
Level 14
Overdrive
Level 14
Brave Slash
Level 14
Hell Blade
Level 14
Red Dust
Level 14
Finish Strike
Level 14
Sword Storm
Level 14
Bloody Surge
Ark Grid Cores
Sun
Moon
Star
Order
Chaos
Notes
Drop Sword Storm and run Assault Blade instead. Both Sword Storm gems go on Dark Rush. Play like normal and press Dark Rush off cooldown when it can be empowered by a Red Dust window.
Ark Passives
Evolution
Critical
30/30
Swiftness
10/30
Boundless MP
2/2
Illicit Spell
1/2
Strike
1/2
Unlimited Magick
1/2
Blunt Thorn
2/2
Enlightenment
Mayhem
3/3
Restore Fury
3/3
Provocation
1/5
Cold Fury
3/3
Stampede
1/5
Dark Enhancement
3/3
Leap
Transcendent Power
x/5
Release Potential
x/5
Unleashed Power
5/5
Mutilate
3/3
Notes
This is the strongest and most flexible build. It can be played with any amount of crit synergies. For each crit synergy you have, remove 1 point from both Strike and Boundless MP and put 1 point in both Limit Break and Unlimited Magick. However, some players might not like being capped at 80% crit, which is why the other two options exist.
Spec enough Swiftness to reach the movement/attack speed cap, then invest the rest in Critical. The amount of evolution points you invest in Critical or Swiftness will depend on your bracelet and whether you eat a feast. It is heavily recommended to eat a feast on Blunt Thorn builds to run extra Critical.
No feast: 932 Swiftness
Event feast: 641 Swiftness
Move points from Illicit Spell into Limit Break if you don’t have mana issues. This will allow the evolution damage to benefit Bleed/Poison/Awakening. However, this is a very minor optimization.
Transcendent Power should be run over either Release Potential or Unleashed Power if you do not have bracelet points to upgrade Mutilate.
Engravings
Core Engravings
Pick One
✓
Notes
- Run MP Efficiency Increase only if it is at a higher rarity than your Cursed Doll book, or if you’re struggling with mana issues on a MP Furnace setup.
- Otherwise, run Cursed Doll as your 5th engraving.
- Mass Increase can be run if you are comfortable with the penalty. After the animation speed update, Berserker gained a lot of animation speed. Players comfortable with slower animations can leverage this into damage if they so desire.
- Other suboptimal engravings that can be run with books of higher rarity include Adrenaline and Ambush Master, but these are not encouraged and will not be supported in the community guide. Run at your own risk.
Skills
Core Skills
Red Dust
Level 14
Synergy, Self Buff, Damage Skill
- This skill should ALWAYS be used at level 10+ due to each level increasing the Attack Power you gain on cast. 24% at level 10, 18% at level 7.
- This is your most important skill, and gates your entire rotation. Avoid casting strong skills outside of its duration.
- The damage gem on this skill can be put on Tempest Slash for a slightly higher ceiling in Trixion, but this is unlikely to be better in real fights.
- Stagger: 21 units
Overdrive
Level 14
Highest Damage Skill, Mid-High Stagger
- This is our strongest damage skill, but does not have a back attack modifier.
- Stagger: 100 units
Finish Strike
Level 14
2nd Highest Damage Skill, Weak Point, High Stagger
Gravitational Blow gives more DPS, but has a longer cast time. Higher ceiling, but makes your Red Dust window very tight and makes Finish Strike more missable. Run at your own risk.- Stagger: 146 units
Hell Blade
Level 14
3rd Highest Damage Skill
Earth Flip is not recommended due to skill CD de-sync and much lower DPS compared to its counterpart.
Stagger: 69 units
Sword Storm
Level 14
Main Damage Skill, Mid-High Stagger
- Using this skill at the start of your Red Dust rotation will include the entire DoT from
Flame Storm inside your Red Dust window. However, this runs the risk of backloading your damage for very minimal damage gain. Choose your rotation at your own risk. - Stagger: 58 units
Mountain Crash
Level 14
Damage Skill, Counter, Mid Stagger
- This skill is flexible and can be used as a counter and a damage skill.
- Since it has stacks, you can keep a charge for countering and still use it as a damage skill.
- Poison offers guaranteed damage value due to the extremely high uptime of the DoT from this rune.
- Stagger: 71 units
Power Break
Level 11
Damage Skill, Weak Point
- This is our weakest damage skill that is still used in the Red Dust rotation. If you find yourself unable to fit every single skill in Red Dust due to boss patterns, this is the one you should drop.
Magick Control can be taken if you are struggling with mana issues.
Pick One
Shoulder Charge
Level 1
Mobility
- Used as a flexible mobility option.
- Purify can be swapped to Quick Recharge when it is not needed.
- Stagger: 21 units
Assault Blade
Level 1
Utility
- Used for Quick Recharge procs or as an alternate source of Poison (if not running on Mountain Crash).
- Only use outside of Red Dust windows to reduce the cooldown of Blood Slash.
- This option is recommended if you don’t find yourself needing the mobility from Shoulder Charge.
Tempest Slash
Level 10
Damage Skill, Weak Point, Mid Stagger
- Overwhelm can be used if you want more stagger.
- Quick Recharge can be put on for lower cooldown on Fury Method.
Storm Slash has slightly higher damage and stagger, but a longer animation. Decide for yourself.- In order to run this skill, builds will need to remove skill points from Core Damage Skills.
- The skill spread we recommend is as follows: Sword Storm 12/Red Dust 11/Mountain Crash 11/Power Break 10
- Stagger: 66(74) units
T Skill and Awakening
Blood Slash
This is the primary T skill for all builds that run the Strike node. While you do not have to land the back attack to benefit from Strike, we recommend trying to land the positional if possible to benefit from the inherent bonuses of hitting back attacks.
Fury Method
Provides similar damage per cast to Blood Slash with a slightly lower cooldown, but cannot leverage Strike’s positional modifiers. This skill can leverage Quick Recharge procs to be cast more frequently than Blood Slash.
Use this skill if you are playing a MP Furnace setup. You can also use this skill if you are playing a Blunt Thorn build with crit synergies, but the variance might be particularly noticeable and annoying.
Berserk Fury
Rage Blade
Main hyper awakening for Mayhem, as it’s the higher damage of the two options.
Gem Priority
Gems are listed in order of most to least important from left to right. Grayed out icons are optional.
DMG
Choose between Red Dust and Tempest Slash for the 6th damage gem.
CDR
All cooldown gems should be the same level to not desync your Red Dust rotation.
Rotation
DPS Distribution
FAQ
Which build should I play?
Unless the sight of white numbers really annoys you, Blunt Thorn is probably the best build.
What Elixirs should I use?
Critical set is the best option for all builds, but Master set can be used by both Supersonic and Blunt builds.