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Berserker - Condi DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Raids

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
Hard
This build was last updated on April 05, 2025 and is up to date for the April 15, 2025 patch.

Overview

A condition DPS Berserker raid build focussed mainly on Burning Burning and Bleeding Bleeding. The rotation is fast-paced and rewards constantly attacking, weapon swapping and triggering of burst skills. Despite this and the Berserker's theming, the damage is among the slowest-ramping in the game, heavily favouring long phases.

This build can pack a good amount of CC and mobility, and its combination of high health, heavy armour and Blood Reckoning make it very survivable. In addition, Scorched Earth is a great cleave skill that can hit distant targets without losing DPS on the boss.

Its damage is heavily dependent on remaining inside Berserk by frequently using Rage skills. As such, it is somewhat reliant on having good Alacrity Alacrity uptime.


Skill Bar

Longbow
Sword/Torch
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Offhand Sword is only a small DPS loss, so you could play this if you prefer.


Skill Variants

  • Sundering Leap is higher DPS than Wild Blow, but the latter can be a potential CC and you may find the movement of Sundering Leap awkward if you're unused to it - to minimise movement, you can mouse over your UI and you will jump on the spot.


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Specializations

  • Blademaster is higher damage if using offhand Sword. You should also adjust your gear to make up for the 120 expertise difference (see below).
  • All the grandmaster traits in Discipline are very low-value for condi berserker. Axe Mastery offers the highest damage, but you could take Burst Mastery if you want extra Swiftness Swiftness uptime. Heightened Focus could also be useful if you don't trust your Quickness Quickness uptime, though it doesn't offer any damage.


Equipment

Head
Viper
Shoulders
Sinister
Chest
Viper
Hands
Sinister
Legs
Viper
Feet
Viper
Backpiece
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Amulet
Viper
Ring
Viper
Ring
Viper
Longbow
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Viper
Torch
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x17
Infusion
x1
Relic


  • If you don't have Infusions, it is slightly more optimal to only run a single Sinister stats Sinister stats piece.
  • If running Blademaster you will need less expertise, so in this case run Sinister stats Sinister stats accessories, shoulders, gloves and feet.
    • It it also optimal to run full Malign infusions in this case.


Non-SotO Relics

There are no obvious damage relics for players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure. Relic of the Krait is likely to be the best of them, but the damage gain would be low enough that you might prefer to go for a utility option instead.


Consumables

Food

  • or ascended alternatives
    • , or for a cheaper alternative


Utility

    • or for a cheaper alternative


Usage

Although the basic structure of the rotation is simple, in practise you have multiple skills that will come off cooldown at different times from loop to loop. See General Tips for an explanation of how to use these skills in the rotation.


Offhand Torch Rotation

Opener

  1. Flames of War
  2. Blaze Breaker
  3. Final Thrust
  4. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  5. Fan of Fire
  6. Head Butt
  7. Berserk
  8. Outrage
  9. Scorched Earth
  10. Blood Reckoning
  11. Scorched Earth
  12. Shattering Blow
  13. Wild Blow or Sundering Leap
  14. Pin Down
  15. Fan of Fire
  16. Weapon swap Weapon swap


Basic Sword Section

Compared to longbow, the order of skills on Sword doesn't matter too much as you will use each of them just once, thus you can prioritise Rage utility skills if they are available. However, Savage Leap will provide a fire aura if you're stood in a fire field, which is very likely as you should have just used Scorched Earth. If you already have a fire field from King of Fires, you should ideally detonate it with a Rage utility skill before using Savage Leap.

  1. Savage Leap
  2. Flames of War (if available) - Flaming Flurry will interrupt this cast, so make it finishes
  3. Flaming Flurry
  4. Sever Artery Gash Hamstring - if you use Rage skills on sword, you can skip the auto chain
  5. Blaze Breaker
  6. Final Thrust
  7. Weapon swap Weapon swap


Basic Longbow Section

It is important not to delay your weapon swap, so always prioritise the listed skills until the first Arcing Arrow over your Rage skills (except Outrage, as it is instant cast).

  1. Fan of Fire
  2. Scorched Earth
    1. Blood Reckoning Scorched Earth Pin Down if Blood Reckoning is off cooldown
  3. Arcing Arrow
  4. Autoattack and Arcing Arrow until Scorched Earth is available
  5. Scorched Earth
  6. Fan of Fire
  7. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  8. Return to start of Sword section


Video example by CostaPrimo


Offhand Sword Rotation

Opener

  1. Impale (warrior sword)
  2. Final Thrust
  3. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  4. Fan of Fire
  5. Head Butt
  6. Berserk
  7. Outrage
  8. Scorched Earth
  9. Blood Reckoning
  10. Scorched Earth
  11. Shattering Blow
  12. Wild Blow or Sundering Leap
  13. Pin Down
  14. Fan of Fire
  15. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  16. Savage Leap
  17. Flaming Flurry - in the opener this is used before Final Thrust as the latter skill won't be off cooldown yet
  18. Final Thrust
  19. Sever Artery Gash Hamstring
  20. Impale (warrior sword)
  21. Weapon swap Weapon swap


Basic Longbow Section

It is important not to delay your weapon swap, so always prioritise the listed skills until the first Arcing Arrow over your Rage skills (except Outrage, as it is instant case).

  1. Fan of Fire
  2. Scorched Earth
    1. Blood Reckoning Scorched Earth Pin Down if Blood Reckoning is off cooldown
  3. Arcing Arrow
  4. Autoattack and Arcing Arrow until Scorched Earth is available
  5. Scorched Earth
  6. Fan of Fire
  7. Weapon swap Weapon swap


Basic Sword Section

Compared to longbow, the order of skills on Sword doesn't matter too much as you will use each of them just once, thus you can prioritise Rage utility skills if they are available. However, Savage Leap will provide a fire aura if you're stood in a fire field, which is very likely as you should have just used Scorched Earth. If you already have a fire field from King of Fires, you should ideally detonate it with a Rage utility skill before using Savage Leap.

  1. Savage Leap
  2. Final Thrust
  3. Flaming Flurry
  4. Sever Artery Gash Hamstring - if you use any Rage skills on sword, you don't have to finish the auto chain
  5. Impale (warrior sword) as soon as you can (ideally without interrupting another skill)
  6. Weapon swap Weapon swap
  7. Return to start of longbow section



Breakbar

  • Your most easily accessible strong CC is Head Butt.
    • If you know you will be using Head Butt, you may wish to delay Outrage so you can immediately break the self-stun.
  • Wild Blow is used in the rotation, so you will need to balance the need for CC against the risk of dropping out of Berserk if you delay the extension.


General Tips

  • Use Shattering Blow, Wild Blow and Outrage off cooldown.
    • You can use Sundering Leap off cooldown, but it is optimal to make sure that you're in one of your fire fields in order to give yourself a Fire Aura.
    • You can save Outrage to break stuns inflicted during the encounter if you think you may need to, though it has a low cooldown.
  • You may need to use Head Butt occasionally to prevent yourself dropping out of Berserk - combo with Outrage.
    • The most efficient time for this is when you would otherwise be autoattacking on longbow.
    • You can also use it for extra damage if King of Fires triggers and you have no other Berserker skill to detonate the aura with.
  • As you delay Blood Reckoning until after a Scorched Earth, the cooldown practically lines up with Pin Down and it's ideal to use it in a fire field for the combo finisher. If they become desynced however, just use Pin Down off cooldown.
    • Although this combo extends the time you spend on Longbow you still want to only use Fan of Fire twice.
  • If timed such that you block an attack, Riposte is both a strong defensive and offensive tool.
  • Use Flames of War off cooldown (if using).
  • You should be aiming to swap off from Sword almost as soon as your weapon swap is available.
  • You can provide extra might for your group by aiming Arcing Arrow inside your Scorched Earth or another fire field.
  • Some bosses have attacks that are harmful to the group if they're reflected (Primarily Matthias Gabrel and Cairn the Indomitable), make sure to familiarize yourself with these and avoid reflecting them with Shattering Blow.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 4 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
4 stars
OfficerAndyGentleman gave this build 4 stars • March 2025
Very long ramp time, even for a condi build, but fares decently if given the time and has great cleave
5 stars
Pandawarmachine gave this build 5 stars • April 2019
Due to break bars it's not as powerful as Power Core, but it's still strong and performs well. Rotation seems long but once you understand WHY, it's very logical and straightforward to use. It lacks in trash clearing, excels in longer fights that don't phase too much. 4.5 out of 5.
3 stars
Chinkeeyong gave this build 3 stars • January 2019
Mediocre condition DPS. Difficult to pull off in real fights due to how alacrity and ping dependent the rotation is.
5 stars
Butterpeanut gave this build 5 stars • February 2017
Updated to reflect 08/08/17 patch. 35k+

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