Berserker - Boon Support Healer
The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good
Focused on: Healing and Support
Designed for: Raids and Fractals
Overview
Warriors can provide permanent 
Quickness (or 
Alacrity) and strong healing output Staff and Vigorous Shouts. The on-demand revives from Battle Standard make this an ideal build for commanders training new players in strikes and raids. This build is quite flexible, allowing it to bring whatever is needed to each encounter.
Berserker is significantly more capable than Bladesworn in this role, as it is able to use both Staff and Warhorn, and has access to Staff's powerful burst skill healing.
Skillbar
Staff
Mace
Warhorn
Weapon Variants
- The mainhand option on the Warhorn set is a free choice. Mace is taken as default as it offers both CC and some active defence.
- Axe could be a good option on Bladesworn as it can trigger Lush Forest.
- Dagger could be used for boon removal.
- For players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure, Warhorn is the only support weapon option.
Skill Variants
Heal skills
- Blood Reckoning - being able to use two burst skills back-to-back has a variety of uses, but you probably want to run this with Head Butt so you still have a way to immediately reach full adrenaline outside of berserk.
Utility skills
- Banner of Tactics - on-demand
Stability and 
Superspeed. - Kick (warrior utility)/Stomp - knockback for mechanics on fights like Samarog and Soulless Horror.
- Bull's Charge/Wild Blow - extra CC.
- Throw Bolas -
Immobilize on a short cooldown. - Outrage - excellent adrenaline generation, and protection against the self-stun from Head Butt (though "Shake It Off!" will do the latter in addition to other benefits).
Elite skills
- Signet of Rage - if you know you don't need revives.
- Head Butt - extra CC when playing Berserker. Can also be used for easy adrenaline generation and Berserk extension.
Template Code
Specializations
- If adrenaline generation is a problem Burst Mastery might end up better than the healing buff from Heightened Focus
- Roaring Reveille - if extra Concentration and on-demand
Resistance is needed, at the cost of some healing and permanent 
Protection. - Empower Allies - for encounters with no conditions to cleanse.
- Martial Cadence - allows you to trigger Soldier's Focus every ~5s (either by weapon swapping immediately after it triggers, or weapon swapping off cooldown). This is lower healing in general, but reduces your reliance on shouts while providing more condi cleanse and permanent Stability.
Specialization Variants
Equipment
Staff
Mace Warhorn
Equipment Variants
Stats
- Giver's pieces can be taken for a tanking. Take as many pieces as you need to have the highest Toughness in your squad and keep the rest Harrier for more DPS.
Weapons
- Axe is the highest DPS option, though you won't be dealing much damage. It can proc Lush Forest on Bladesworn and provide two combo finishers for condition removal in Light fields.
- Maces can be brought in either slot to provide CC. Mace's burst skill Skull Crack does extremely high breakbar damage when combined with Superior Sigil of Paralyzation (and Merciless Hammer if taking Defense).
- Longbow can provide a good amount of Might with Combustive Shot dropping a 9-second fire combo field. Arcing Arrow and your Warhorn skills are all blast finishers. Longbow is also a good ranged option for tagging mobs in open world or festival farming.
- Hammer can be brought if extra knockbacks and/or CC is needed, thanks to Staggering Blow
- Mace (main hand) and/or offhand Shield can provide blocks for tanking.
Sigils
- Superior Sigil of Renewal - a small on-demand burst heal. Can weapon swap on cooldown even if you only bring one weapon set by placing the main hand in the first set and the offhand in the second set.
- Superior Sigil of Paralyzation if bringing Mace to focus on CC output.
Relics
- Protection is not permanent without Staff, but you could make it so with Relic of the Zephyrite. This will require using an elite with a cooldown of 40s or less.
- Relic of Karakosa only offers healing when using Warhorn, and as you only have a single combo field (Banner of Defense) you'll need to try to combo with your allies' fields. However, if you want to swap for Warhorn regularly for
Swiftness and 
Vigor, this helps cover the shortfall in healing when not on Staff.
Consumables
Food
- Bowl of Fruit Salad with Mint Garnish
- Delicious Rice Ball
Utility
- Bountiful Maintenance Oil
Usage
Adrenaline
Both elite specialisations rely on adrenaline/flow to generate their primary boon. "To the Limit!" is a great skill for immediately maxing this resource and using you first burst skill/dragon trigger.
Adrenaline
Throughout the rotation, you will need to be hitting the boss to build up adrenaline while also making good use of skills and traits that generate more:
- Valiant Leap (staff) generates five if you hit an ally other than yourself.
- Bullet Catcher ⇒ Defiant Roar (staff) generates five, plus two for every attack blocked by Bullet Catcher.
- Counterblow (mace) generates six if allowed to channel fully, or three if Adrenaline Rush (mace) is used early.
- Signet of Rage passively generates two every three seconds.
- Versatile Rage generates five every time you
Weapon swap. - Burst Mastery (if using) refunds 33% of the cost of a burst skill.
In general, you shouldn't need to bring specific utility skills for extra adrenaline, as Signet of Rage and/or Burst Mastery should generate plenty extra.
If you aren't bringing Rage skills to extend your berserk, you will eventually drop out. The simplest method is to save "To the Limit!" and use it to immediately regain full adrenaline, but you could also rely on Head Butt.
Boons
Heal warrior has the ability to provide every boon in the game, and the vast majority with permament uptime.
Quickness
Thanks to Heat the Soul, every burst skill provides AoE Quickness. You also have a little extra on Charge (warrior).
Alacrity
Daring Dragon provides a huge amount of Alacrity when you hit a Dragon Slash. The charge level also doesn't matter so you can use it immediately without consuming too much flow.
Aegis
This is provided on-demand with Banner of Defense. It is also applied by Line Breaker, but as this skill is required for permament Protection uptime, it is less available.
Fury
Fury is essentially free, as you generate it on every burst skill thanks to Heat the Soul, as well as Valiant Leap (staff) and "For Great Justice!".
Might
"For Great Justice!" generates ~17 stacks, and you should get an extra ~8 from Marching Orders triggering. Valiant Leap (staff) provides some more, and if this is still not enough, you could get more by taking Empower Allies or Martial Cadence.
Protection
Line Breaker (staff) and Marching Orders are both required for permanent Protection. Without Staff, you'd have to rely on a relic effect (see the Equipment section).
Regeneration
Both Banner of Defense and Rampart Splitter should be capable of providing permanent 
Regeneration.
Resistance
Permanent Resistance can be provided by Banner of Tactics.
Resolution
Bullet Catcher ⇒ Defiant Roar generates a lot of 
Resolution, and the extra from a single banner should be enough to make it permanent.
Stability
Provided on-demand by Banner of Tactics. If taking Martial Cadence, uptime of a single stack can be permanent if you trigger it often enough.
Swiftness and Vigor
Your only source of either of these is Warhorn, though they should be easy to keep permanent.
Healing
Staff provides the bulk of your healing, as every skill except Snap Pull is a heal:
- Balanced Strike ⇒ Reverse Strike ⇒ Inspiring Whirl - only the last skill in the chain heals, so it's a good idea to finish the auto chain if you can.
- Valiant Leap - Make sure to hit your allies with this, so it generates adrenaline. You also want to use this regularly for
Might - Line Breaker - A big heal and also provides
Aegis, so it can be delayed if necessary, but frequent use is required for permament Protection. - Bullet Catcher ⇒ Defiant Roar - Blocking attacks will power up the skill and increase the healing and adrenaline. If there's nothing to block, just use the flip skill immediately, and make sure to use it regardless before it expires.
In addition to Staff, you have Barrier on:
- Call of Valor
- Banner of Defense
Finally, Marching Orders provides a small heal on a 10-second interval, and you can generate additional healing from every shout skills with Vigorous Shouts.
Vigorous Shouts or Martial Cadence?
Your choice of grandmaster trait in Tactics will slightly alter the way you play. Vigorous Shouts makes all your shout skills heal as well as boosting your healing power. This comboes with Shrug It Off to apply this healing twice to "To the Limit!" making it rather potent. Martial Cadence makes Soldier's Focus reset when you weapon swap, allowing you to get more value out of this effect.
The main reason to choose Martial Cadence is for the increased Stability uptime, as the other benefits this trait provides (predominantly Might and condi cleanse) are most easily handled with shout abilites, so Vigorous Shouts has more natural synergy. The other main reason would be that you want all three of your utility skills for encounter mechanics (for example, you may with to bring two banners and a CC skill), limiting the effect of Vigorous Shouts.
Vigorous Shouts
In the standard build, you can use your utility shouts for reactive healing as they are ammo skills. You can mostly camp Staff and use skills off cooldown, while switching to use Warhorn skills every ~17s. This gives you more freedom with your rotation, making it easier to swap to your second weapon set reactively e.g. for CC.
Martial Cadence
With Martial Cadence, you aim to get the most value out of Soldier's Focus. The most effective way of doing this is to weapon swap off cooldown to reset the effect, and ensure you get at least one burst skill off before swapping back. Your healing is reduced with this trait, both because you lack Vigorous Shouts, and because you will need to more regularly swap off Staff. On the plus side, you generate a lot of Stability and regular condi cleanse, as well as freeing up your utility slots due to less reliance on shout skills.
As you want to be weapon swapping nearly off cooldown, you may run into issues with adrenaline generation (as you need to use at least one burst skill before swapping again). This can be solved with Signet of Rage, Burst Mastery, or bringing some Rage skills.
Without Vigorous Shouts, Shrug It Off loses some value, so you could switch to Empower Allies to enable you to drop "For Great Justice!".
Example opener (berserker)
- Charge (warrior) to start with Quickness
- Call of Valor
- "To the Limit!" ⇒ Berserk
- Skull Grinder
- Weapon swap - generates five adrenaline
- Valiant Leap - generates the remainint five adrenaline if you hit allies
- Rampart Splitter
Use up to two charges of "For Great Justice!" during the opener to hit 25 stacks of Might as soon as you can - it is instant cast and so can be used during other skills. After this you can use it reactively for healing and to stop Might dropping.
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