Build:Berserker - Quickness Support Power DPS

This is a test build. You may comment and rate it.

Focused on: Strike damage and Support

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on October 11, 2022.

Overview

Once a meta-defining DPS-support, Bannerslave has returned as a Quickness provider. Banners provide a large amount of Quickness up front and then pulse supplementary boons for a while afterwards. This makes warrior excellent for handling mechanics as it can spend long times off stack, and can provide its boons up to 960 units away. As banners cannot be moved once placed, it does struggle to maintain uptime on encounters with lots of movement.

This build provides permanent uptimes of Quickness and Fury, along with around 70% Resistance and 7 stacks of Might. It can also provide a permanent 25 stacks of Might by swapping to the Tactics traitline.

Skill Bar

Axe/Axe

Mace/Mace

Utility

Weapon Variants

• You can run only an off-hand Mace (leaving the main-hand slot of your second weapon set empty) when you feel confident about the CC or if you do not want to be stuck in a mostly CC/utility weapon set when you want to CC. This allows you to still have access to your main-hand Axe and keep doing damage while still providing decent CC.
• Warhorn can replace the Mace in your off-set to provide some additional boon coverage. This can be especially valuable if your subgroup doesn't have another source of Swiftness as the buff from Warrior's Sprint is significant.

Skill Variants

• Mending will give greater DPS in short, phased fights where you will have enough downtime to precast it. This is most relevant in fractals.
• Defiant Stance can be used to provide temporary immunity to damage allowing you to ignore certain mechanics such as the shockwaves at Sabir.
• If you don't need the CC from Head Butt, and can start phases with full adrenaline, then Battle Standard offers some extra boon generation and an emergency res.

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Specializations

Tactics Variant

If you want to provide Might for your subgroup, you can bring the Tactics traitline instead of Strength

• This setup will struggle to fully generate 25 Might, but in practise there will usually be some other sources that keep it capped. If there aren't you can swap to Empower Allies.

Equipment

Thief Rune Equipment

Rune of Superior Rune of the Thief provides the highest damage, but requires you to flank. This is most reliable in raids, where there is often a dedicated tank controlling the direction the boss is facing.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Mace
Berserker

Mace
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

• As you overcap crit with this setup, it is a small DPS increase to swap in Diviner stats gear up to ~10% boon duration whilst remaining crit-capped.
• On encounters where bosses can be stunned (e.g. Keep Construct and most Strikes and Fractals) you would benefit more from a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact instead of the Sigil of Superior Sigil of Accuracy.
  • In this case, it would be optimal to have the weapon with Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact use Assassin stats, and also use (or ascended versions) as your food.

Eagle Rune Equipment

Eagle runes provide another alternative for situations where you are unable to reliably flank. The damage is slightly worse than Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar, but as you would need to be above 90% health the entire time, Rune of Superior Rune of the Eagle is much more convenient.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Assassin

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Axe
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Mace
Berserker

Mace
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

• Your should use (or ascended versions)

Consumables

Food

Utility

• Any applicable slaying potion in Fractals when possible

Usage

Banner Usage

In general you want to use your banners off cooldown, though you can afford to delay them by a second or so if it means not delaying your berserk rotation. If you anticipate needing to delay your banners to deal with mechanics, or just find that you need higher boon duration to maintain Quickness, then swapping in Diviner stats gear is very efficient.

Rotation

• Strength Build Video Example
• Tactics Build Video Example

The rotation aims to get as many casts of Decapitate off during Berserk mode as possible. Effectively, this means that while on Axe/Axe you cast Decapitate followed by a combination of skills that gets you back to 10 Adrenaline to recast Decapitate. These combinations can be any of the following, listed in order of which they should be used:

1. Whirling Axe - note that you should let this fully channel, don't interrupt it once you have full adrenaline!
2. Cyclone Axe + Throw Axe
3. Dual Strike + Throw Axe
4. Cyclone Axe or Dual Strike + Chop
5. Chop + Double Chop

The above list can also be used as a priority list once your skills start coming off cooldown again. Aim to get 13 casts of Decapitate for each time you enter Berserk. When you're not in Berserk mode, you can follow the same general principles, replacing your Burst skill casts with auto-attack chains.

General Tips

• Use Blood Reckoning to reset your Decapitate, as long as you're not going to need the healing from it later.
• Never interrupt your Axe auto-attack chains when you're not in Berserk Mode
• Swap to Mace/Mace only if CC is required. Tremor, Skull Grinder and Pommel Bash are your CC options on the set.
  • Swapping from Axe/Axe is a large DPS loss, especially when you're in Berserk - try and rely primarily on Head Butt for any CC needs.
• If you're using Peak Performance, make sure the buff is active each time you cast Whirling Axe and try and fit in as many weapon skill casts and Decapitates as possible afterwards