BDO Berserker Guide - Pummel Your Enemies into the Ground

Welcome to our Black Desert Online Berserker Guide traveler! 

In this BDO berserker guide, we will teach you everything you have to know to make your Berserker experience as comfortable as it is humanly possible. We will talk about pre-Awakening playstyle, how to grind with it, what are the changes after awakening, how to clear mobs properly, what to focus on, and of course - what is your role in every scenario, PvE, or PvP, Small Scale or Large Scale, doesn’t matter. Everything will be here.

Why Berserker?

 Don’t listen to what other people say. This is the manliest class for the true sturdy men with titanium chests. And if you chose to roll a Berserker then you should know these things before you finish your character creation. For when black spirit shooses a fearsome tyrant, one should buckle up for an exciting ride. 

When it comes to PvE clear speed Berserkers are extremely good, and they get a lot stronger with more skill points at a better ratio than other classes. Zerk is a high damage high HP class with lots of Crowd Control abilities, dashes, and damage, that uses both attack speed and casting speed to increase the fluidity of their combos.. This class is very clunky at the beginning, as lots of damaging abilities will lock berserker in certain movement animation, or they won’t move him at all, just damaging everything around or in front of Berserker. But as you progress further and further, you will get more attack speed, buy a magic crystal or several crystals, get your damage reduction, boss main weapon (for example Bares, Yuria etc.), boss ornamental knot, Bheg Gloves, shoes that provide lots of movement speed, your tyrant will become a very elastic force, with plenty of quick abilities that will make you very mobile on the battlefield. Remember, if you want to become one of the best, you will have to optimize every gear slot. The weapons are incredibly important, but you will also need the perfect belt, helmet and accessories like: ring, earring, necklace and more. Besides the defense stats, you can also get attack speed and accuracy. Every item slot has some value - that's why becoming one of the best requires a lot of farming. 

With that said, skilled Berserker will find a way of moving unpredictably in and out of combat. It’s a complicated subject when it comes to this class, and I will try to cover this shortly, but there are lots of videos all over the internet that will explain everything better, and actually show what to do. Watching a video is better in that matter, but when it comes to pure theory, you will find everything here. 

Berserker requires lots of knowledge and understanding. It’s a very complicated class when it comes to PvP. There are lots of things that Berserker can do, and to find that right thing for a special situation is the real challenge. Especially in Large Scale PvP. Most of the time berserker will rush in first with his Iron Buster ready to take aggro of the enemy group while applying lots of CC to set up his teammates for kills. While you can dive backline with his movement and high damage it’s better to be there for your teammates and set up everything for guild members so they can go ham. A good Berserker will be one of the most important deciding factors when it comes to group engages.

Is enemy too strong? Grab him and keep him away from the fight for a couple of seconds. Enemies cooped up in a tight space? Jump in and cc them before your team jumps in. To give you an idea of Berserker’s role - have you ever seen a movie poster of the group of superheroes that jump into each other from both sides, ready to kick each other’s ass? Berserker is one of the front preparing that massive first punch.

Berserker also adds some psychological value to every fight. Fighting huge enemies is intimidating even before the first hit lands. Being the giant man in a group you are the most scary person. People see bigger things as threats. It’s a big part of fighting games (imagine fighting against a Street Fighter character - Hugo), and it’s a big part of generally - fighting. You can use that to your advantage sometimes. Everything helps. But you know, prepare for high AP and SP requirements as you want to look like a truck and actually hit like two trucks, no one wants to see a truck deal damage equal toa wet noodle damage. You have been warned.

Pre-Awakening Movement

Without the proper knowledge, Berserker will feel really clunky. Especially during the pre-Awakening phase. To actually move effectively from mob group to another you will have to use certain skills to make your grinding efficient. You shouldn’t really do much else before reaching Awakening. Grinding is one of the core aspects of this game, and it’s fun by itself. But do it efficiently is the whole other story. So, how to move properly pre-Awakening?

There’s a certain skill chain that you will use. Every Berserker should know this short chain. There are three skills you will focus on: Head Butt, Stomp, and Ultimate: Evasion. You will use that in that order:

Head Butt -> Stomp -> Ultimate: Evasion

W + RMB -> F -> Shift + A/D

It’s easily canceled and you should work with your muscle memory so you can do it cleanly. Don’t mash the buttons, as it will get you nowhere. Just learn everything slowly and add pace to it when you get to the point when you do this without paying attention to your fingers. Keep in mind that it’s not protected at all.

At the end you will be able to cast a skill called Shake Off, changing the chain to be:

Head Butt -> Stomp -> Ultimate: Evasion -> Shake off

W + RMB -> F -> Shift + A/D -> A/D + RMB

This way you will travel faster, at the cost of higher stamina consumption, but if you need to get away fast, this is your best bet during the pre-Awakening. After the chain, you can use skill Lava Piercer too, as both Shake Off and Lava Piercer provide Super Armor.

And if you somehow have trouble with that (maybe your fps make this move inconsistent), you can use the alternative version of mix-dash:

Ultimate: Evasion + Slash

Hold all three: Shift + A/D + LMB

And you will dash that way too, just a bit slower.

Pre-Awakening skills

Headbutt

Usage: Movement

Headbutt is mainly used for movement, as it was specified in the pre-awakening movement section. There’s no reason to put points into this skill, as you won’t get anything valuable and the ultimate version will basically ruin the movement utility of this skill

Smack Down

Usage: Very Important Grab

Berserker is the only class in the game that has multiple grabs. Grabs not only provide damage, but they can catch people off-guard, can interrupt combos when timed properly, and provide Super Armor for you during the duration. This is the fastest Zerk grab in the business. 

Fort of Giant

Usage: Free HP

Passive free HP, nothing more to say. 

Storming Beast

Usage: Cancel

Get the ultimate form of this skill. It will be used during combos as a connection between one skill and another. Successfully canceling the animation is a very important part of the game, and it will take some practice, but in the end, every second you put into the training will be worth it

Corpse Storm

Status: Grab

Another grab but way less reliable. This one is less important and can be left at its first level. You will have to hotkey that skill to use it. 

Undertaker

Status: Smackdown CC extension

It’s an extension of  Smack Down grab which basically allows you to jump in the air with your grabbed victim and deal a significant amount of damage when smashing him into the dirt.

Shake Off

Usage: Movement

Allows for that silly jumpy movement cancels that will let you dash very fast when you acquire the awakening. Distance gets increased with levels so you should level it up to the maximum for utmost efficiency. After you reach awakening this will be your cheapest way of dashing in the awakening from, when it comes to stamina consumption.

Tackling Rock

Usage: Front Guard charge

Unlocks your Rabam skill at level III. You are going to need it. 

Falling Rock

Usage: None, pretty much dead skill.

You sprint towards the enemy to then jump on them crushing them into the ground. It doesn’t deal a lot of damage and it comes out of a sprint so it’s highly unsafe to use it in any situation. It can apply a stun, but it’s simply too risky to use. I locked it just in case to not get tempted to use it, as it looks really powerful.

Final Strike

Usage: Fierce Strike can be used in a Combo

Rock Smash

Usage: Grab and Hold

A powerful grab that will take out your opponent for some time. You grab your enemy and hold him overhead for a couple of seconds before throwing him into the ground. With your enemy on the ground, you can execute a powerful combo. With your enemy over your head, you can also run with him towards any direction (extremely potent troll skill)

Weakling Hunt

Usage: Dropkick cancel

This skill could be powerful as a knockdown tool but it’s not protected at all, and for the majority of the time - you will be executing it after sprinting which makes you even more unprotected. Not worth it to use in 99% of cases. Can be used with your awakening for animation canceling

Beastly Wind Slash

Usage: Early Grinding Tool

Very good skill for pre-Awakening grinding. Gets outclassed by the other main skill that I will mention later. You can put points into it early, but you will most likely end up reducing it to level I, as it’s not really relevant after some time. Later on, with more SP, you will get this back for a good Movement Speed buff.

Fierce Strike

Usage: High damage 

This skill is just… it hits really hard, most likely the strongest pre-awakened ability that focuses on sheer power. You should get the absolute at some point. Useful for PvE, useful for PvP. Most likely your hardest-hitting pre-Awakened skill.

Frenzied Destroyer

Status: Top priority

It deals some damage and locks you in place for the entire duration. It contains a powerful +16 AP buff for 10 seconds, that shouldn’t be overlooked. Sixteen Attack Power is a lot. Get this, use it for the buff, and continue with your combo. You can take the base skill-points and get the Absolute version of this skill, Ultimate, and the special finisher are not required.

Predatory Hunt

Status: Unsafe Super Armor

Super Armored jump that has a chance of Bounding your enemies if they are not in the state that blocks Crowd Control. However, as soon as you land - you will lose your Super Armor, and you can get easily grabbed out of the ending animation, so it’s not advised to use it often. Maybe as a surprise attack, but it should not be in your main combo starters. It’s reliability also depends heavily on your FPS - if you are slower machine do not attempt to use this skill as it’s super armor might not work at all getting you stunned mid-air. 

Raging Thunder

Status: Required

This skill is really good DPS in PvE and you will want to level this up to the maximum straight to the absolute. It’s very expensive so you won’t take it straight away, but after you manage to get all of the Awakening skills to max level, you will max this out as a 5th skill in your pre-Awakening (as when you reach Awakening, you will want to put most points into pre-Awakening utility stats like Skilled Hunter or Infinite Mastery, before you get to the damage part of your main skill tree).

Awakening Skills

Rooting

Usage: Grab chain combo extender

This ability is a standard grab, but you can access it in your Awakening state. It will be mainly used in Grab Chain Combos as a third or second grab to Bound your enemies and apply a Knockdown to them with a proper skill follow-up.

Titan Syndrome

Usage: Main Class Buff

Every class in the game possesses a handy “E Buff”. Berserker to feel unique switched to a Q key and has a “Q Buff”. It will boost your DP by 20 points for 30 seconds, your Health Points will be recovered for 30 seconds, ticking +200 HP every 5 seconds, your Resistances will be increased by 50% for 30 seconds, and Movement Speed will be increased by 20% for 20 seconds. You will also regain 400 WP, and buffing animation will be protected with Super Armor. It’s a great buff to use in a dire situation.  

Titan Step

Usage: CC kick

A quite decent offensive PvP ability that has a chance of applying a Float. It will be mainly used in combos where you cancel this ability into a grab, as this skill will reduce the DP of your target for 10 seconds, which is more than enough to finish your target. At a higher level, even small amounts of DP can make a huge difference in a fight. Reducing that by 15 points will allow you to one-shot your enemy more easily. 

Blasting

Usage: Three-Punch combo filler

Pretty long animation, some good damage and it recovers HP points with every good hit. Decent grinding ability when you are waiting for your more powerful cooldowns. When it comes to PvP - it’s mainly a combo filler to fire off when your enemy is either in the air or grounded, due to the Air Attack and Down Attack multipliers. It’s not protected so be careful with it in fights when you are fighting against two or more opponents.

Devastation

Usage: Area of effect stun and damage dealer 

Devastation will be the first ability that you should level up to the maximum. It’s a 6 hit combo that will deal devastating damage to those who are close to you. This ability will hit a maximum of 10 targets applying a massive -30% debuff for 10 seconds to the Movement, Attack, and Casting Speed. It will Stun enemies in PvE on good hits, pulling them and spinning them around. It’s also a Super Armor with a Down Attack Multiplier. It’s truly devastating. 

Titan Blow

Status: Powerful Stiff/Knockdown Tool

This ability is yet another charging skill in your hit. If you charge it to the maximum you will get increased damage with additional hits. It will regain some HP as well with every good hit. Since it hits a maximum of 10 targets, in theory, you can heal up for about 1500 Health just like that. During charging you are put in a Forward Guard state, which is helpful, and risky in some scenarios. If your enemy knows your kit and sees you charging Titan Blow - they might try to flank you avoiding the Forward Guard. However, you can stop charging at any moment to dish out this powerful hit that will either apply Stiffness or Knockdown. It’s a powerful tool for baiting your enemies into a knockdown trap. And of course, it will decimate your enemies due to the sheer force of this ability. If that was not enough you can execute Flow: Split Shot with that skill which is known to evaporate knocked down enemies. 

Flame Buster

Status: Spammable ship cannon

This is the second awakening ability that you should level up as soon as possible. You charge this powerful shot with a 100% Critical Hit Rate dealing completely devastating amounts of damage (please note that during the Titan Syndrome this fires off instantly). The longer you charge this shot the more damage you will deal, and you get a Forward Guard status during charging. It works as an Air Attack and a Down Smash, and it can apply a Smash in both instances. It has a 6-second cooldown and it can be used on-cd. It will deal reduced damage and won’t grant you Forward Guard, but the damage will still be meaningful. It’s common for many Berserkers to just spam this ability from a vantage point on a group of unsuspecting enemies, and when ignored - it can work wonders. Skilled Berserkers can easily spam-cancel this ability shooting at incredibly fast rates. 

Ground Lifting

Status: Combo Filler

Back when this skill had Super Armor it was a decent way of opening up windows of opportunity for your combos. Without it - it will mostly work as a combo filler, as it can deal huge amounts of damage, especially to those on the ground thanks to the Down Attack multiplier. Outside of that, it’s a very decent ability for PvE.

Giant Leap

Status: Bread-and-Butter Ability

This one may be the most important ability in the whole Berserker’s kit. Mastering this skill is crucial for effective gameplay, as it will serve as a tool for movement and deception. To make this skill even more effective it’s advised to enable mouse movement in your settings. This will allow you to change the direction of your jump instantly with one mouse click. It’s especially useful when your enemy is in front of you and you want to get behind their back. You simply jump behind them, and with a single mouse click you turn around, landing right behind their back. It’s amazing in a situation when your enemy is in Forward Guard state. 

As for the specifics - It deals a lot of damage, you are invincible when you are in the air, you gain Super Armor as you land the attack, and there’s no character collision so you can jump past your enemy to land behind them without much effort. The only downside to this ability is that it will not apply its Crowd Control statuses like Stiffness, Bound, or Floating to your enemies in PvP, as those will only occur in PvE against mobs.

Flow: Shooting Mobility

Status: Dodging Cannon

This is a flow to our Flame Buster. Flame Buster itself locks you in charging animation. Flow: Shooting Mobility, however, will allow you to jump to the side or backwards to dodge attacks and abilities. It’s really useful when you desperately need to reposition yourself, as it’s a great movement ability.

Flow: Ancient Power

Status: Even More Powerful Cannon

If you choose to charge your Flame Buster for a longer time it will deal four times the damage, as long as you manage to charge every bar to the maximum. If you find that time and safety to actually fire this off in a fight - it’s a great ability to use for some quick burst.

Flow: Slugfest 

Status: Lingering Super Armor + Combo Filler

This ability will be mainly used in the middle of Stiffness + Stun + Knockdown Combo. This ability will deal some good damage in PvE, and in PvP, this damage will be reduced by a significant amount. However - its Down Attack and Air Attack capabilities combined with a chance of applying an Air Smash and Down Smash will increase the damage dealt in PvP by a ton. Not only that, but this ability will also grant you Super Armor status, that will linger through the majority of the very long animation. You will mainly use that in the middle of your combo after a Knockdown.

Flow: General Disarray

Status: Huge Damage Burst

It’s a Flow to Ground Lifting. While the main ability is utter trash due to lack of the protection and its overall riskiness this one can be used in the middle of the combo for a huge burst of damage. It’s a Down Attack so it would be best to use it near the end of your combo.

Flow: Earth Dividing

Status: Devastation Final Hit 

This Flow will extend the Devastation ability with one additional Attack that will deal increased damage to enemies refreshing the debuffs applied with initial Devastation attacks, and granting you longer Super Armor status. It’s great for trading and for finishing your combo with a huge burst after a Knockdown since this ability has a Down Attack multiplier.

Flow: Jump Sequence

Status: Giant Leap Extension

Slam the ground once again after a Giant Leap. It will deal more damage, and prolong your Super Armor state. It’s also a good finisher due to its Down Attack Capabilities.

Flow: Split Shot

Status: Knockdown Bait and Combo FInisher

Can be used when you are charging Titan Blow. Titan Blow itself has Forward Guard while Charging protecting you from Crowd Control and Attacks from the front. It will deal some damage multiplied by Flame Buster’s Damage, firing off a powerful shot that can Knockdown enemies. It will be slower than Titan Blow meaning that it works as a delayed attack that can throw your enemy off. This is what makes it a great ability for Knockdown fishing. And it can also be used mid-combo to deal horrendous damage with Down or Air Attack, with a small Smash chance in both instances.

Flow: Ancient Wave

Status: Ultimate Finisher

This may be the hardest hitting ability in Berserker’s kit. It has a drawback, it can be used during Titan Blow, your character will dodge backwards and then fire off this devastating attack that will deal the damage equal to Titan Blow’s damage multiplied by seven. It will still grant a Forward Guard to your character, meaning that you will still be somewhat protected. It can Knockdown enemies, but if your enemy is already on the ground - this ability will deal huge damage with a Down Attack multiplier

Berserker Skill Build:

You will want to focus on getting certain skills in the beginning, that will help you move around or deal damage (if you have decent AP count you will want to focus more on the movement part of the main skill-tree)

Level 1 -> Level 55 (about 440 SP required at the end)

Here you will focus on movement and damaging skills. Your pain damage will come from Frenzied Destroyer, Beastly Wind Slash, Head Butt (used for movement cancel too), Storming Beast, Shake Off (movement), Ultimate:Evasion (movement), Lava Piercer (for longer distances and running in between mob groups), and maybe one point of Wrath of Beast, if you have low DP and need some healing. You will also want to access all stats skill-points like Infinite Mastery etc. 

Just before you hit level 56 you will want to reset the skill-points, as from now on you will mainly use Awakening to grind. Keep your pre-awakening skills that are required for movement, and those that offer stats.

Level 56 -> End

Here you will want to respec most things into Awakening skills, at least to use them. You will get lots of points during the leveling to 60/61, and you should keep most of the points early for Awakening Skills, Stat Skills for HP and AP against Monsters, and Movement from Main skill-tree (Lava, Headbutt, Shake Off, Ultimate: Evasion).s

Then gradually with each level you will want to max out Awakening as much as it is possible for efficient grinding. Around 1200-1300 Skill Points you will have the most important movement skills and every Awakening skill at the maximum, and they you can start to worry about main skills. You will take your grabs, your Frenzied Destroyer, everything you will need. But at this point you will be experienced with the class enough to figure out which skills to take, and if you are not sure, look at the skills’ statuses above.

Berserker 1v1

If I could rate Berserker’s 1v1 dueling capabilities it would’ve been 3 domestic violences out of 5 domestic violences. While Zerk’s engages and burst damage are high, Zerk is a chaser and a grabber, so his play-style is most of the time very predictable.

If your enemy knows the in-and-outs of your class then you will suffer as a Berserker, more than any other class. You will have to work really hard to do something in PvP if you do not get the jump on the enemy in the first place. Berserker is one of the few classes that get in your face, but is most likely the worst class to do that out of these few classes (for example Striker and Mystic).

With that being said Berserker will need not only high AP to be able to be competitive, but he will take double the effort to be effective. Most classes with similar Skill, Knowledge and Gear will hold advantage against the Berserker. Zerk has arguably one of the highest skill ceilings and one of the most twisted learning curves. You will have to train, adapt to every class and you will be able to win, but it will take much more effort.

In the current meta (that will most likely hit console users in a few months) where classes one-shot each other at higher AP, getting the first clean Crowd Control off is the most important thing. And the ways that Berserker can go for, are extremely predictable, and that’s most likely the only thing that make him weaker than other classes. There’s little room for creativity if you are inexperienced, and you will have to really work on that, fighting each different class, learning every one of them one by one. 

Berserker has some decent count of Super Armor abilities, but these skills don’t really do anything when it comes to damage and greater utility. Super Armor will be used only to dodge some CC that could put you in a situation that would get you one-shotted. You can also utilize Black Spirit's Rage for additional damage and range.

Berserker Node War Guides

While Berserker is not that great in Duels he excels at other things. Sieges, Node Wars, ands basically all aspects of Large Scale PvP is when the Berserker can truly shine. Castle Siege is unquestionably the best case scenario for Berserker, as using a FlameBuster, that has extreme range and AoE damage from the castle wall can be absolutely devastating, especially with the Q buff. A well geared Berserker can be a one-man guild if he knows what to do during a siege, and if enemies are cooped up in a decent spot, to where Zerk can just jump to, he can do some real mess with Ancient Wave/100%/Q Buff.

This is a blessing and a curse at the same time. My thoughts about this are mixed, and I am not the only one. Limiting your main damage to 3 skills seems like a good idea to lower the curve and make the class relatively easy, but it does something different, maybe even something that is exactly opposite. And it depends on the enemies. Either they don’t know how Berserker works, and how hard he has to work for the damage that he can dish out, and they call him op, or they know exactly that he relies on only a few good skills, and they can react to them accordingly when they see them coming. It’s a mixed bag.

There are lots of things happening during Large Scale Player versus Player scenarios, so it gives each Berserker a window to truly shine. It’s hard to pay attention to all the things that are happening, so Zerks can be a little less unpredictable in their movements, as they will be able to be unnoticed for the most part before their engage. And since being predictable as a Berserker is the biggest problem - being in a chaotic Siege War, where everything can happen, Berserker can be a true Game-changer with less effort, in comparison to Small Scale PvP, and 1v1 duels.

Summary

This is the end of our Black Desert Online Berserker Guide. We hope that you have learned something today, and that you are now prepared to join the fray as a Zerk. This class tutorial is only a small chunk of our Black Desert Online Classes Guide 2019, that you can find on our website. You will find specifics about every class, where we will talk about the pure theory of every class to bring you closer to making you understand it. The list of other great BDO classes includes Witch, Ranger, Tamer, Wizard, Knight, Valkyrie and Warrior. In Black Desert Online players can travel through the vast map of the unnamed world and visit locations like Calpheon, Valencia, Heidel and much more! Besides completing quests and various PvE and PvP combat activities, you can also focus on life skills like Alchemy, Fishing, Trading etc. You can also hire workers and use strategy to create an economic empire - you can own land and build much more than just a house - there are plenty of workshops and other crafting buildings.  BDO is really complex and it lets you approach gaming in multiple different ways.  

And to enhance your Black Desert Online Experience - check out the offers posted on our site - MMOAuctions.com! You can a multitude of things there that will greatly increase the fun that you get as you play BDO.  

Follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group to keep yourself updated with our new content, guides and offers on the marketplace!

Copyright MMOAuctions 2020, all rights reserved