Gameplay FAQ
General
Why should I play this class?
To live out your Guts/Berserk fantasy and yes, even the pain part.
You have 2 viable Class builds, Mayhem or Berserker’s Technique, depending on which playstyle you prefer;
Be it Mayhem’s consistent high uptime Damage or a more bursty playstyle on Berserker’s Technique for some big numbers.
Berserker’s Burst comes in the form of an elaborate aura around you which, in Mayhem’s case, is an amazing black & white glow that is up permanently.
How does my identity work?
Similar to Slayer, Berserker has a Fury meter that is filled by hitting the enemy with any one of his 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 increase. Crit Rate is only applied to Berserker’s Technique.
- Burst mode cannot be canceled.
- You also gain access to Berserker’s greatest Skill, Bloody Rush (Default keybind Z) which deals significant damage (unless you are Mayhem) and has additionally Push Immunity, Weak Point, and Stagger.
- After Burst Mode ends, a non-removable exhaustion debuff prevents you from gaining meter from attacks for 30 seconds, unless you have on the Berserker’s Technique engraving.
The two class engravings available for Berserker change how his identity works.
Mayhem
- Always start will Full Meter and can instantly transform into a permanent Burst Mode.
- Z becomes Dark Rush which does much less damage but keeps the great utility.
- 15% Bonus Attack and Move Speed, as well as bonus Damage.
- Health is forced to 25% Maximum, with 72% Damage Reduction, effectively 83% of your original health.
Berserker’s Technique
- 36% Damage Increase in Burst Form.
- When Burst Mode ends, exhaustion is not applied.
How do I decide on a build?
Both have their strengths and weaknesses. It’s a matter of personal preference. Here’s a short summary of the builds.
Mayhem
Very high, constant damage while always staying in Burst Mode. While in Burst Mode, you will always be at 25% max HP.
Pros
- Strong DPS when played properly
- High burst cycles
- Smooth rotation with no desync
Cons
- Rotation dependent due to Red Dust (8 second window)
- Long animation locks
- HP anxiety being at 25% always
Berserker’s Technique
Plays much like a transformation class, building meter to get into Burst Mode, then having high consistent damage
Pros
- Strong consistent DPS
- Very tanky
- High burst potential
Cons
- Skill desync
- Long animation locks
- Relies on hitting all meter gen skills to burst quickly
- Slayer exists
What are the key pieces of my build?
Runes
Mayhem requires as many Galewind Runes as you can fit to properly rotate within the Red Dust window.
Berserker’s Technique players make good use of Wealth Runes and a high Specialization Stat to transform in one skill cycle.
Skill Points
Both Builds require almost every Skill Point Potion available in the game. With up to 6 damage skills, increasing as many of these skills to Level 11/12 as possible proves to be major for your damage.
What is the Red Dust jail?
In this guide, you will notice a lot of references being made to the skill Red Dust, the “Red Dust window” and cycles/rotations. Being available at Character Level 36, this skill provides you with a 6% Damage synergy for all party members for 16 seconds, at most +24% Attack Power for yourself, as well +33.2% Crit Rate, both for 8 seconds, every time you hit any enemy with it. This means your dps during those 8 seconds can basically triple for endgame builds.
On the flipside meaning: If the enemy runs away, enters a Damage Reduction phase or you simply get interrupted as the skill has no paralysis immunity, some of your skills won’t do adequate damage.
This is the trade-off of Red Dust, also dubbed “the Red Dust jail”.
Your main goal for this class is finding the optimal opportunity to use Red Dust and fit in all major skills that you can in the buff window, every 16-24 seconds.
Why is Yearning important?
It’s considered a part of a build despite not being on your character.
Swamp of Yearning is used by supports and gives +8/10/12% Damage and Attack/Move speed to the party. This is a Relic Set they use that has a golden ring.
Mayhem
Playstyle
We are always “online”, as in our burst mode is up permanently, and our playstyle revolves around hitting our Skills during the 6 seconds Red Dust window to take advantage of the Crit Rate and Damage increase it provides. Mayhem generally has its Attack and Movement speed capped and can be seen as an easy Class to play.
What is the best 9/7 stone to cut for Mayhem?
Having a stone that you will not regret upgrading to Ancient is very important for a lot of players, since you will have to commit it eventually and upgrading a new stone is expensive (6000 Gold per Lvl, 24000 Gold for Lvl 4).
For people that don’t have a 7/7 stone yet and are planning to recut, Master’s Tenacity/Raid Captain/Cursed Doll are solid choices for your new stone.
If you happen to cut a 9/7 stone, whereas 7 points are on Raid Captain, you can still use it as lvl 2, being ~.976% weaker than the BiS lvl 2 Cursed Doll and you are better off using Raid Captain over Cursed Doll for the build in the case of a 7/7.
If you already have a good 7/7 stone, feel free to attempt 9/7 with the Master’s Tenacity/Cursed Doll stones for the perfect 5×3+2 build.
Overdrive’s Ruthless vs. Limit Break, which one is stronger?
Over time (based on 3 minutes of Trixion testing), the Combo build is ~7% stronger than the Charged build. However in term of Damage per Rotation, the Charged build is ~7.5% stronger.
Using Ruthless is still recommended for most people due to how easy it is to play.
What about Entropy/Ambush Master on Mayhem?
Remember that this combination gives you 65% Crit damage and 26% Back Attack Damage, all assuming you hit your attacks from the back (And +22% Crit rate without any preconditions.)
Of course this also means dropping Nightmare and another engraving, like Master’s Tenacity.
Overdrive is our highest Dps Skill in the kit and does not benefit from any Back attack increase. That is also true for Brave Slash. Together, they make up 30-35% of your total damage.
Assuming these 2 facts, if your uptime on your back attacks is anything but 95%, your effective damage gain from Ambush Master already falls under 16%, weaker than Master’s Tenacity, and Entropy will fall behind Nightmare.
This is too much effort to gain damage that Mayhem can get for free by choosing other gear.
Entropy users are also required to eat food to keep up with the lack of mana, the Crit Damage is diminishing together with Keen Blunt Weapon, and the Crit Rate is wasted as Berserkers already have 90%+ Crit in the late-game.
None of the benefits of Entropy can be well integrated in a class that already is forced to invest all of its points in Crit and Swiftness.
TLDR: If you want to play it, go for it, it’s not my gold. But for the vast majority of players, Entropy Mayhem is NOT recommended.
Is Berserker’s Technique better than Mayhem or Vice Versa?
This is not as simple as it sounds. Both offer at the same time different things and similar things so in the end it comes to your preference and what you value more, be it consistent Damage or more burst Damage and playstyle.
Shoulder Charge?
Shoulder Charge is a relic from old KR builds, serving as a mobility skill with good QoL that can apply bleed and burn through a rune and tripod.
It came from a lack of usable damage skills, which has since been changed with the introduction of Brave Slash. Brave Slash taking up a significant portion of the total damage has rendered Shoulder Charge useless, also taking into account that Berserkers are already at maximum Movement speed.
It can speed up your adventures through Arkesia but it’s vastly redundant in Raids.
Berserker’s Technique
Playstyle
Unlike Mayhem, Berserker’s Technique plays somewhat like a transformation Class, where you have to build meter to get in form. However, upon activating form instead of a new set of abilities, you gain a massive stat steroid (30% Crit chance, 20% Attack and Move Speed, and 16%/25%/36% flat Damage gain depending on Engraving level). You also gain access to Bloody Rush, which does a large amount of Damage – unlike Dark Rush which is primarily used for super armor/ stagger on Mayhem.
3 BR or 4 BR?
BR stands for Bloody Rush and refers to the 3 and 4 rotation variants.
The goal of these two playstyles is to fit in 3 or 4 BR. Being able to fit in 4 BR generally means more damage from Bloody Rush, which is your highest Damage-per-Cast skill.
You have to have high level gems and Swiftness, as well as instantly cast Bloody Rush in your burst whenever you can.
In this case, you exchange the Tempest Slash CD gem for a BR (Lvl 9/10) one as well. Since the window is tight and you have to pay attention to Bloody Rush for the entire burst, this is a harder playstyle to realistically pull off.
Most players will just generally speaking have a better time and more consistent results playing 3 BR.
Stimulants?
Stimulants used to be vital for a Berserker’s Technique player.
Since the rework in March 2023 enables Berserkers to burst within one good cycle, Stimulants are considered less useful than Atropines. You can still use this to get full gauge before starting the fight and switch back to Atropines.
Is Berserker’s Technique better than Mayhem or Vice Versa?
This is not as simple as it sounds. Both offer at the same time different and similar things so in the end, it comes down to your preference and what you value more, be it consistent Damage or more burst Damage and playstyle.
What about Entropy BT?
It is completely viable, however due to the high difficulty for not much trade-off I would not recommend it for most players, so here’s just a synopsis.
This playstyle changes the standard uptime non-positional playstyle of BT into a “cycle burst” back-attack class that is required to hit multiple positionals in a short buff window – it plays very similar to post-rework Pinnacle Glaivier or pre-rework 4-spender Entropy Wardancer.
It has lots of downtime while your burst rotation isn’t up to do whatever – the standard Power Break build probably has the most complete dead downtime of any spec in the game. The build can also run Crime Hazard in lieu of Power Break for a much more uptime-demanding variant with an even higher ceiling.
Pros
Extremely high sustained/cycle damage while transformed, excels in entropy-friendly fights where boss attacks have long windows.
Cons
Very difficult to play if the boss doesn’t have long back attack windows, requires high pattern knowledge, not viable for every fight.
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