Class Strategy – Berserker Achievements (part 1)

One of the things i love to do is thoroughly analyze a subject — such as a class in an MMO, or the process you follow to build a computer — figure out what makes it tick, and share my findings with the world. It’s something I found I was very good at while I was an admin for The Magician’s Tower. It was actually one of the reasons I became an Admin, so I could more easily create, edit, and update guides that people (including myself) posted.

So today I’m going to continue that practice, and with something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile.

Ever since I’ve started playing my Berserker, one question frequently gets asked: “What AA spec should I do?” I suppose it’s natural to ask this; you don’t want to play a gimped character. And certainly the wrong Achievement build for a Berserker can gimp you, both in solo play and in group play, at least when compared to another achievement build.

So for my first part in a multi-part series, I’m going to thoroughly dissect the different Achievement Points options for the Berserker class, specifically in the Warrior tree. We’ll see exactly what they are, what they do, and whether it’s a potentially good or bad buy for a Berserker to get. In part 2, I’ll analyze the Berserker tree. And in part 3, we’ll start talking different build configurations, and the pros and cons with each.

Warrior Achievements

Like all Class trees, the Warrior tree starts with a starter ability, then divides into five separate trees, shorthanded to the STR tree, AGI tree, STA tree, WIS tree, and INT tree. All abilites have a maximum rank of 8 points, except the final abilities. The final abilities cost two points, and require 22 points in its corresponding tree to purchase.

The starter, Bind Wound, is a throwback to the old EQ1 days when a Warrior would Bind Wound himself from low health to high health, so he could continue to (painfully) solo. Prior to a tough fight, this should be one of the pre-combat buffs you cast. Really, you have no choice but to buy this.

Strength Tree – Executioner

This tree is famous for Weapon Expertise, which is essential for maximizing your damage output. Generally you’ll want to spend points in this tree.

Executioner’s Strength – Increases base Strength by 4 per rank. Since Berserkers already have insanely high Strength, there’s little point in spending more than the minimum requirement for this.

Executioner’s Wrath – A melee attack that greatly increases the next attack’s chance at a critical hit. The higher the rank, the higher the damage this attack does, and the higher the chance at a critical. Do note that auto-attacks tend to eat this. This is an excellent ability to use in a combo; use this, turn off your auto-attack, then cast one of your very high damage combat arts, or an AE attack, to do massive damage!

Weapon Expertise – Increases the chance at a melee critical hit, up to 22% at rank 8. Weapon critical hits always do 1 to 30% more damage than the rated maximum, while combat arts always do an additional 30% over what they would have already done. This is probably one of the best Achievements that a Berserker gets, and is highly recommended for all players.

Executioner’s Anger – Increases hate generated by the Berserker, up to 10% at rank 8. It’s unclear if this stacks with other forms of hate gain (such as from Coercers), or if it allows you to exceed the 50% hate gain cap. Generally you’re better off spending the points on other achievements to boost your damage, than increase your hate. Not to mention this ability is completely useless when soloing.

Executioner’s Fury – When below 50% health, your critical chance goes up, and your combat arts do more damage. This is sort of a ‘last ditch” ability, but isn’t all that useful unless you intentionally keep your health down. Healers tend to want the tank to keep their HP as high as possible, and aren’t likely to let you keep your HP down.

Agility Tree – Dragoon

This tree is best known for Dragoon’s Cyclone, which turns a good chunk of your attacks into AE attacks. This is less useful for a Bersker, and more for Guardians, though, as Berserkers already have many abilities that fire off AEs.

Dragoon’s Agility – Increases your base Agility by 6 per rank. Generally you don’t want to waste points on stat Achievements, since the effect is so minimal.

Dragoon Spin – A PBAE melee attack with it’s own recast timer separate from your other abilities. Good for helping you get aggro, and kill things faster. Few Berserkers have this, though, as they already have a lot of AE abilities for this purpose.

Dragoon’s Cyclone – Grants your primary weapon a chance to AE, striking up to four targets in front of you. This triggers at a rate of 5% per rank, up to 40%. While useful, it is also risky in a tightly-spaced dungeon where AEs are a bad idea to begin with. Not to mention it’s completely useless when fighting less than two enemies.

Dragoon’s Avoidance – Increases your defense stat. The amount of defense increased varies with level. This is excellent if you want to consider going full defensive, but since a high end tank will already have very high Defense, most of these points will likely go to waste.

Dragoon’s Reflexes – Causes you to parry all incoming attacks, and dodge all non-direct AEs, for 12 seconds, but you are stifled for the duration. This is mostly useful for a raid tank who is trying to position a mob in a high risk situation, and not really all that useful in solo and group situations.

Stamina Tree – Gladiator

This tree is also called the Buckler tree, as every ability (besides the stat ability) requires you wear a buckler at all times. This is also a favorite tree among Berserkers, due to Gladiator’s Finesse.

Gladiator’s Stamina – Increases base Stamina by 5 per points. Like other stat Achievements, it’s not generally a good idea to put points into this more than necessary, especially since Berserkers have very high Stamina to begin with.

Buckler Reversal – Whenever you parry, riposte, or block, or you are parried, riposted, blocked, or deflected, you counter attack. This resets every 30 seconds. Higher ranks deal more damage. While it looks good on paper, the damage dealt from this is very low overall in any given parse.

Gladiator’s Finesse – Increases chance to double attack with your primary weapon, up to 60% at rank 8. This ability is the bread and butter of the entire tree, as it generally increases your damage output to that of dual wielding, while maintaining your ability to use a shield (albeit a buckler).

Gladiator’s Revenge – Increases your chance to outright riposte frontal attacks, and parry all other attacks, by 1% per rank, up to rank 8. If you plan on tanking while using a Buckler, this is a requirement, as it brings your avoidance to nearly that of a Tower Shield.

Arena Endurance – Decreases power cost by 10% for all combat arts and abilities, and slightly heals you whenever you cast any combat art. This is a great ability to have, as it lets you use 11% more combat arts for the same power pool. Excellent for those long fights.

Wisdom Tree – Demolisher

This is perhaps the most defensive of the five trees, and overall the weakest. Not highly recommended by anyone.

Demolisher’s Wisdom – Increases base Wisdom by 7 per rank. See above for my thoughts on stat increasing Achievements.

Belly Smash – A melee attack that can only be used after your target has been knocked down. Decreases target mitigation if it lands. Higher ranks increase the damage dealt and mitigation decreased. This is useful for soloing and grouping, but not for raiding, as Epic mobs cannot be knocked down.

Seasoned Veteran – Increases the Damage Per Second stat by 2.4 per rank, up to 19.2 at rank 8. While good on paper, it’s an awful lot of points to get here, not to mention many classes can buff your DPS.

Unshakeable – Increases physical mitigations. The amount increased depends on level. While good on paper, in practice if you have low mitigation, you’ll gain far more from upgrading your armor and spending points elsewhere, than here. Once your mitigation hits around 50%, you’re heavy into the diminishing returns curve, practically nullifying any usefulness from this ability.

Stance Mastery – Decreases the penalties with offense and defense stances, as well as Hunker abilities. Also while good on paper, this is less useful if you already have high Defense and Offense skills from your gear, and low to no use when you are heavily buffed. Not to mention many Raid mobs practically ignore your Defense rating to begin with, or so people believe.

Intelligence Tree – Slayer

This tree is most famous for the high haste you can gain. Not just auto attack haste, but combat art haste too!

Slayer’s Intelligence – Increases Intelligence by 8 per rank. Need I repeat myself here?

Acceleration Strike – A combat art that increases casting speed, recovery speed, and haste by 25% (more with higher ranks) after using three more combat arts. Duration increases with higher rank. For spending a minimal amount of points, you gain a lot of benefit from this ability!

Slayer’s Speed – Increases Haste by 2.2 per rank, up to 17.6 at rank 8. This is the equivalent to Seasoned Veteran, but for Haste. But unlike Seasoned Veteran, you’re likely to spend points in Acceleration Strike anyway, and if you have the points to spare there’s little reason not to purchase this.

Parry – Increases Parry skill. The amount of Parry increased depends on level. This is similar to Dragoon’s Avoidance, but for the Parry stat. Unlike Defense, though, Parry is hard to raise. However a higher Parry isn’t as directly as effective as a high Defense stat (or so I believe). Good for tanking though.

Relentless Assault – Hastens recast time and recovery time of all combat arts. If you have the points to spend, this is an extremely powerful ability to have, as it lets you fire off all of your combat arts (buffs included!) more often.

Final Thoughts

Though I’ll discuss the various pros and cons of different builds later, the most popular current Berserker builds include:

STR448 STA448 INT448 – The pure DPS build
STR448 STA4488 INT43 – The Buckler Tank build
STR4488 STA4488 – High Hate Buckler Tank build
AGI4488 INT4488 – Tower Shield Tank build

By current, I mean they only account for 50 Achievement point limits. With Rise of Kunark, we’ll see the limit raised to 70 per tree.

I myself run STR448 STA44882 INT43 on my Berserker. It’s proven to be a good build for me.