Transforms Burst Mode into an always-on Mayhem Mode, dealing sustained damage.
Berserker
Community Guide
LAST UPDATED
March 22, 2026
March 22, 2026
Editors
Deca, Swoop, Fynnek, Katarmar
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?
Berserker Identity
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
- Very comfy
- High amount of Push Immunity
- Significantly higher damage ceiling
Cons
- Lower damage ceiling than Berserker’s Technique
- Doesn't play Ambush Master but around 70-80 % of our damage has a backattack modifier so hitting consistent attacks from the back is recommended.
- 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
- Very comfy
Cons
- Lower damage ceiling than Berserker’s Technique
- Doesn't play Ambush Master but around 70-80 % of our damage has a backattack modifier so hitting consistent attacks from the back is recommended.
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
Ark Grid Cores
Sun
Moon
Star
Order
Chaos
Notes
Core Information available >> here <<
Massively increase Dark Rush's damage. Activating Destiny makes Dark Rush always count as a back attack (17p only) + increase its damage.
Every core increases Dark Rush's damage in some way:
- Omni-directional as long as Destiny is active (17p only)
- Big flat damage increases but slightly longer cooldown
- Damage, crit damage, casting speed
Every damage increase line you see in our cores is multiplicative, not additive (except for cdmg on Star Core)!
This build is already playable at 14 points on all 3 cores but the damage increase you get by upgrading to 17p is immense. Upgrade order: Moon -> Sun -> Star.
Ancient core order: Star -> Sun -> Moon
Footage: YouTube
Ark Passives
Evolution
Crit
28/30
Swiftness
12/30
Boundless MP
2/2
Illicit Spell
1/2
Strike
1/2
Unlimited Magick
1/2
Critical
1/1
Master
1/1
Blunt Thorn
2/2
Enlightenment
Mayhem
3/3
Restore Fury
3/3
Cold Fury
3/3
Stampede
2/5
Dark Enhancement
3/3
Leap
Transcendent Power
x/5
Release Potential
x/5
Unleashed Power
5/5
Instant Spell
2/3
Mutilate
3/3
Notes
Pet: Crit
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 Release Potential if you do not have bracelet points to upgrade Mutilate or the raid is short enough that cdr on our T Skill doesn't make a meaningful difference (around 5 minutes).
Engravings
Core Engravings
Pick One
✓
Notes
- MP Efficiency provides the least damage but helps with sustaining mana (does NOT work on Dark Rush!).
- Mass Increase is 1 % higher damage than both Cursed Doll and Master's Tenacity, use whatever you have at higher rarity.
Skills
Core Skills
Red Dust
Level 10
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 14
Damage Skill, Weak Point
- This is our weakest damage skill.
- Magick Control can be taken if you are struggling with mana issues.
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
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.
Blood Slash's cooldown is 10 seconds higher than Fury Method but its damage is slightly higher due to Strike and the Leap Tree nodes.
Fury Method
This is the primary T skill for MP Furnace builds because it has no back attack modifier and is therefore not affected by Strike which we don't use on MP Furnace builds.
Its cooldown is 10 seconds lower than Blood Slash.
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
Rotation
DPS Distribution
FAQ
What's the strongest build?
After the recent balance patch 111 (Dark Rush) is the strongest build. 333 + 222 are still good builds and are totally viable if you prefer their playstyle.
I'm always out of mana, what can I do?
- Use mana food / Azena's Blessing (mandatory)
- Use more Focus Runes
- Use MP Efficiency as an engraving (DOESN'T WORK ON DARK RUSH)
(1 % less damage than Cursed Doll + Master's Tenacity, 3 % less damage than Mass Increase)
- Pray for next balance patch lmaooo
Why are we not mixing Ark Grid Cores like other classes?
It's simple, because it's less efficient than using 111 222 333.
The slight exception to this being the Holding Ark Grid Sun Core, having this Core at 14 points activates Red Dust's Rage buff for 20 seconds if you can get any Moon Core to the point where you activate Destiny it's very valuable.
How does Supersonic Breakthrough work?
Your Attack- and Movement speed must be 140%. After you reach 140% on both, 30% of the excess beyond that point is converted to evolution damage, to a max of 24%.
This means you need a total of 26.66% excess between Attack- and Movement speed.
Examples of this would be:
153.33% both Attack- and Movementspeed (13.33%+13.33%)
160.33% Movementspeed and 146.33% Attackspeed (20.33%+6.33%)
These are the minimum values you need to reach to cap out Supersonic.
Having Mayhem active, grants you 15 % Attack- and Movementspeed.
Feast is always recommended to use and mandatory if you play the Supersonic Breakthrough Build.
General Minimum Swiftness Requirements to cap Supersonic (excluding bracelet AS/MS roll):
1330 Swift (+9% Yearning, 5% Feast, 3% AS or MS Wine)
1417 Swift (+9% Yearning, 5% Feast, No Wine)
1708 Swift (+9% Yearning, No Feast/Wine)