Path of Exile Berserker - Build Up Rage and Crush Your Enemies

poe Berserker build 2019

Berserker is an entirely damage-focused class. Such class is a typical damage dealer with skills that boost his survivability only when he kills the enemy. He gains many different additional bonuses when fighting. Such bonuses can be: a boost to attack speed, increased life leech, damage boost, and the most important - RAGE skill. This is the skill from which Berserker gains almost all his power. You gain Rage while losing life in certain fights. The more life you lose, the more boosts you get. You can gain even 50% increased attack damage and 25% increased attack speed. In this PoE Berserker Build guide, you will read everything in details.

This class is very often used for the fast boss grind. His single target damage is very high, so he is perfect to do so. If you want to focus on killing bosses like Atziri, Uber Elder or Shaper, this class is the perfect choice for you. Berserker is a typical glass cannon this means that you will need the proper equipment to do all the game content and enjoy the gameplay. I highly recommend this class for beginners since it is easy to play and not expensive when it comes to buying items. His most useful passives are:

berserker passive skills

Pain Reaver: very good passive which boosts your survivability. It gives you Mana and Life Leech when fighting. Such passive converts 2% of Attack Damage into Life and Mana when you kill a minion. Additionally, it gives you the ability to regenerate 1% of your Attack Damage as Life or Mana. To make it clear. If you hit the minion for 1000, you will get 10 health and mana back.

Cloaked in Savagery: this passive is based on the life you lose during fights. It boosts your Life Leech on hit by 100% when you take Savage Hit from minion or boss. Savage Hit is the situation when minions or bosses hit you for 15% of your maximum HP. For example, if you have 1000HP and minion will hit you for 150, this passive will be activated. Additionally, it boosts your Damage by 50% and Attack Speed by 25% if you take a Savage Hit.

War Bringer: a passive skill which effectiveness is based on Warcry. When you use Warcry, this passive recovers your 25% of Life and Mana. Also, it increases the cooldown of Warcry skill and its duration by 100%. Additionally, you gain 5 Rage when you use any Warcry.

Crave the Slaughter: a passive skill which boosts your Rage. It gives you 1 Rage stack after killing an enemy minion. There is also a 10% chance to gain 1 Rage stack while fighting with Rare or Unique enemies. You can gain 1 Rage after every successful hit.

Rite of Ruin: very strong passive which boosts your stats while on Rage. It doubles every bonus which you gain during Rage. It will especially help you on bosses because you will be able to stack the damage pretty easy on them. Additionally, it makes you immune to any stuns if you have at least 25 Rage.

Aspect of Carnage: the most powerful passive of Berserker class. It has a similar effect as Abyssus helm. It significantly boosts your damage but sadly, you will take more damage from monsters and bosses. It gives you 40% more Damage but you get 10% more damage from monsters.

As you can see, every skill has different specific bonuses and for each build, you will need a different configuration. Now I will show you the most played build for marauder Berserker in Betrayal league. The build I have chosen is 3.5 Heavy Sunder build. Such a build is mostly based on spell damage and poison type of damage. Such a build can be also used by Templar if you use proper skill tree and equipment. The build is quite cheap and not as easy to play as you think. The player will have to learn some mechanics first in order to survive on 16t maps on Uber Atziri. Since you are always in close range with enemies, you have to be prepared that sometimes hits from them may be lethal. Below I will explain the advantages and disadvantages of this build and show a proper building path. Enjoy!

Advantages

Easy to play - since the build is based on one skill, you don’t need any special abilities to play this class. Also, build is pretty cheap so you will deal super amount of damage for not so big of a price.

Fast clearing speed - insane damage and quite good survivability makes this class very good at mapping and boss killing. You don’t need high-end gear to clear maps very fast. Even with medium equipment, you can do the best game content like t16, Atziri or Shaper.

Not so expensive - you don’t have to spend hundreds of chaos orbs to deal good damage and enjoy character gameplay. Each piece of suggested gear is pretty cheap.

Perfect League Starter - since it's easy to play, have good clear speed and is cheap, all these factors make this class perfect for a start, not only the league but also your journey with PoE.

Disadvantages

Abyssus and Aspect of Carnage in one build - if you want to deal huge damage you should wear Abyssus helmet and use Aspect of carnage passive. Because of that, you will get 50% more damage from monsters. This can really hurt you.

Rage dependent - sometimes you will not get enough Rage to survive some situations.

Cannot do maps with reflect damage mod - remember to look on map mods, and don’t make maps with reflect damage. You will for sure kill yourself and in a result, lose tons of experience.

Equipment

At this point, I will focus on what equipment you should buy during your adventure with Heavy Sunder build. Since the path of exile is one of grinding gear games, you will need to change your eq very often. In this part of the guide, I present the best path to building your char, links to proper items and some tips to speed up the building process.

a) Weapon

For the first weapon, at level 10 you should choose a mace Gorebreaker Spiked Club. Such mace will give you huge damage, especially in the beginning. You should use two of them if you want to maximize your damage. Then you should switch your weapon to Wideswing Poleaxe. This weapon will boost your damage and make your skill hits more targets, because of the area of damage attribute in it. Buy it at level 20.

When you reach level 40, try to find Chober Chaber Great Mallet. It boosts your melee gems and increases your damage a lot. You will use it to level 65. When you reach such level, you will need Tidebreaker Imperial Maul for bosses. When it comes to fighting with minions, you will need two one-handed weapons. A very good example of such a weapon can be Soul Taker Siege Axe. Soul Takers will increase your attack speed and damage when fighting with normal monsters. Additionally, it can chill enemies which is a huge boost for this class. There is also the possibility to buy two one-handed rare axes but it might be expensive.

b) Helmet

For the first helmet, you should buy Goldrim Leather Cap. It boosts your resistances by 35%, so it is all you need for the beginning. At level 60 you will be able to equip Starkonja’s Head. The helmet attributes increase your damage as well as survivability. Reduced damage by 50%, while you are on low life, is a very strong boost for you, because you won't die so much. It also increases attack speed by 10% and global critical strike chance by 25%. You should consider finding a helmet with 4 sockets (3 red and one green). The Starakonja’s Head is quite a cheap helmet and it drops very often, especially on higher levels. There is also the possibility to go for Abyssus Ezomyte Burgonet but you can do this only when you are a skilled gamer because it increases damage taken by 50%.

c) Belt

In order to get perfect game starting belt you should look for the one which will boost your survivability and main attribute which is dexterity. A rare belt with at least 15% of elemental resistances should be enough for early game. If not, look for a belt with more resistances.

When you reach the late game, you should buy Phoenix Clasp Stygian Vise or cheaper alternative Belt of the Deceiver Heavy Belt. I suggest buying the Deceiver Heavy Belt since it is very cheap and at the same time powerful. It boosts not only your survivability but also damage. If you will need to make up resistance caps, choose Stygian Vise.

d) Gloves

In the early game, you should get gloves which increase 20% of your elemental resistances and evasion. Thanks to that, your survivability will be highly boosted. You can also use Lochtonial Caress Iron Gauntlets if you are looking for damage and attack speed boost. In the late game, you should find good rare gloves with at least 35% of each resistance and life boost. Additionally, some gloves offer 20% increased melee damage, which would be perfect for this build. There is also the possibility to use Empire's Grasp Goliath Gauntlets because of reversed knock back attribute, but in my opinion gloves with resistances will give you more boost.

e) Boots

For a perfect game starter, you should focus on boots with at least 20% of elemental resistances and evasion. It will boost your dodge chance and at the same time survivability. Boots like Dragon Tread Shagreen Boots will be perfect. In the late game, you should look for boots with more resistances, at least 35% of each and what is very important, more health.  There is also the possibility to get Death's Door Crusader Boots. Such boots increase your survivability by adding 200% more armor and Energy shield to your stats. It is very easy to find them with 4 sockets but sadly, they are quite expensive.

f) Armor

In the beginning, just focus on heavy armor with proper sockets. It is very important because you will be able to lvl your main skill from early levels. I recommend you to get Tabula Rasa Simple Robe because of 6 linked sockets without specified type. Such armor is cheap so you will be able to get it in the early stage of the game.

In the late game, you can choose between two armors: Belly of the Beast Full Wyrmscale or Kaom's Heart Glorious Plate. The choice mostly depends on the gem setup. In armor you set up your main skill with supporting gems, which makes this armor very good for this build. On the other hand, Kaom’s Heart gives you a huge amount of life which is also a very important factor in such a build. Anyway, I suggest buying a Belly of the Beast since it gives you some health boost and a chance for six linked gem sockets which makes your build even stronger.

g) Amulet

In the beginning, you will need amulet with high elemental resistances and life. The amulet which increases your all attributes is a very good choice, just to be sure that you will be able to level up your gems. In the late game, you will need Impresence Onyx Amulet. It will reduce mana reservation for Vulnerability gem which fits perfectly for this build. Without this amulet, you can have problems with mana when using skills. If you lack resistance caps, you can buy rare amulet with at least 35% of each resistance. Also, you should focus on finding an amulet with the additional attribute „20% increased Physical Damage”. For this build, it will scale perfectly with damage dealt.

h) Rings

For a perfect starting ring, you should look for the one with high elemental resistances and elemental damage. Also, try to get at least one ring with the attribute you mostly lack. In this build, you often lack intelligence so try to find a ring with such attribute. In the late game, you should try to find Kaom's Way Coral Ring for increasing life regeneration. Additionally, it gives you one endurance charge so it will boost your survivability even more. The second ring you should wear is Ming's Heart Amethyst Ring which converts your physical damage into bonus chaos damage. It will significantly boost your damage, especially on bosses and uber minions. There is also a possibility to buy a ring with resistances, but this two uniques will do the job.

i) Potions

Potions are pretty important when it comes to fighting with monsters. In many situations, potions can save you from sudden death or give you a huge boost to your dmg. In this version of the build, you will need very simple potions which are slightly cheap. The fastest way to obtain them is buying on pathofexile market.

For the first potion, I suggest is typical life regenerator. It is very important to find potions with mods like Instant Recovery and Immunity for Bleeding. One potion will be enough since you have a life leech and life recovery from rings, weapons and Passive Skills.

The Second potion you should have is Lion's Roar Granite Flask. It increases your physical damage, so it will be a perfect combo with Atziri’s Flask. Additionally, there is 75% to cause a Flee on monsters so sometimes it can help to survive death-like situations. The Flee is some kind of fear. which will make monsters run from you.

The third mandatory potion is Quicksilver Flask. It increases your movement speed by ~60% and when you deal Crit Hit it recovers flask charge. It will help you when mapping and sometimes it will save you when minions get too close. I recommend buying potion like this: Experimenter's Diamond Flask of Adrenaline.

For the fourth potion, I suggest to have is Atziri's Promise Amethyst Flask. The very good potion which boosts your damage and life leech while used. It converts your physical and elemental damage to EXTRA chaos damage. It is will perfectly co-operate with one of your rings. Your hits will deal insane single target damage.

For the last potion, I recommend Experimenter's Diamond Flask of Reflexes. It boosts your critical chance and evasion rating while used. Nothing would content you more than survivability connected with dps in one potion. As an additional attribute, you should look for Increased duration by at least 35%.

j) list of gems

Armor - 6 linked sockets ( 5 red sockets and one green)

Sunder - your main attack gem which creates a wave that travels in a straight line and hits enemies. When Sunder hits an enemy it causes a shockwave which makes aoe damage.

Multistrike Support - support gem which makes your linked attack skills hit twice. It basically repeats the effect of used attack skill. Also, it is important to mention that each repeated attack, hits with a random element.

Melee Physical Damage Support - supported skills deal more physical damage to the opponents

Brutality Support - support gem which completely removes the ability to deal elemental damage with linked attack gem, but boosts its Physical Damage up to 50%

Maim Support - gem which gives a chance to cast a maim on the opponent while dealing the damage. It boosts your Physical Damage on maimed targets and reduces their movement speed by 30%.

Faster Attacks Support - increases the attack speed of Sunder skill

Weapon - 6 linked sockets (5 red sockets and one blue)

Ancestral Warchief - summons a totem which deals additional damage when a player is close to it. Additionally, it increases your physical damage.

Melee Physical Damage Support - increases the damage physical damage of linked attack skill

Multiple Totems Support - thanks to this gem you will be able to summon one ancestral warchief more.

Maim Support - gem which gives a chance to maim opponent while dealing the damage. It boosts your Physical Damage on maimed targets and reduces their movement speed by 30%.

Ruthless Support - thanks to that gem you will deal up to 113% more Physical damage every third attack.

Concentrated Effect - the gem which increases the damage of linked attack or spell but reduces aoe damage. Very good gem since totems do not deal aoe damage but strictly single target damage.

Gloves - 4 linked sockets (3 red sockets and one green)

Leap Slam - attack skill which makes your character rush to a target area and damage enemies. A perfect skill for mapping when you don’t have boots with a good amount of movement speed.

Fortify Support - gem which gives the player a chance to get fortify buff which reduces received damage from hits by 20%

Enduring Cry - the gem which taunts enemies in the player area and gives a chance to obtain endurance charges. The endurance charges reduce your received damage.

Faster Attacks - increases the attack speed of linked attack skill gem.

Boots 4 linked sockets (3 red sockets and one green)

Herald of Purity - the buff gem which boosts your physical damage with spells and attacks. There is also a possibility to summon Sentinel of purity after a successful kill which will fight on your side.

War Banner - the buff gem which boosts your physical damage and accuracy. It is more powerful when you are killing enemies. For each kill, you will get more physical damage and more accuracy.

Summon Stone Golem - summons stone golem which helps you to fight with his taunt ability. It also increases your life regeneration per second and attack damage.

Arctic Armour - a defensive skill which protects the player from physical and elemental damage dealt by minors and bosses.

Helmet 4 linked sockets ( 2 red sockets one blue and one green)

Vulnerability - spell gem which curses all targets in the area and makes them more vulnerable for physical damage.

Blasphemy Support - it converts every curse skill into aura skill. Here it converts Vulnerability curse into an aura which curses nearby enemies.

Increased duration support - support gem which increases the duration of linked gems

Vaal Haste - the gem which increases user attack speed

k) Skill Tree (also viable in Synthesis league)

Skill tree for Heavy Sunder Berserker with ascendancy

l) Bandits

You have to help Oak in order to maximize your stats and damage. It gives you 20% increased Physical Damage so there is a no better option to replace it. Alira could be also good but we are not basing on critical strikes, but on pure damage, so I recommend to help Oak.

m) Pantheon                             

Soul of Lunaris - The best choice with this build because it reduces received damage and increases movement speed for each nearby enemy

Soul of Tukohoma - gives you even more damage reduction and boosts your survivability

n) Jewels

In jewels which you put in the skill tree you should look for:

attack damage

melee damage

maximum life

attack speed

a chance to deal double damage (Weight of the Empire Crimson Jewel is perfect for this build)

In abyssal jewel (we put it into the belt) you should look for:

maximum life

attack damage

melee damage

resistances if you need to reach required caps

attack speed