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Berserker's Guide

 

 

Races: Dwarf, Norseman, Troll
Primary Stat: Strength
Secondary Stat: Dexterity
Tertiary Stat: Constitution

Level Ability/Skill
1 Sprint, Cloth, Leather, Studded, Staves, Sword, Axe, Hammer, Parry
2 Small Shield
5 Left Axe, Berserk I, Evade I
10 Protect, Berserk II, Evade II
15 Berserk III
20 Berserk IV, Evade III

This guide was written by Kharon. If you want to use this guide on your site, ask for permission.

Origins of the Berserker
Patron god: Modi the arch-god of the Norse pantheon, and especially of battle. Berserkers have the ability to drive themselves into a battle rage that lets them fight without thought of personal safety. At higher levels they can shapeshift into bears for additional power.

Berserkers in Dark Age of Camelot
The Berserker is a viable class to play, but the Bearform is not implemented yet.

Strengths of the Berserkers
1) The skill Left Axe give the Berserker the most damage adding styles in game. Using two axes with a damage adding spell or song make the Berserker a damage master of Midgard.
2) Berserk is doing a big deal of damage. I see this as an advantage when you are not attacked especially in RvR.

Weaknesses of the Berserkers
1) Restricted to Studded Armour that is the lowest armour of melee classes in Dark Age of Camelot. We can nearly compensate the lack of chain armour with our higher evades in melee, but we have a big disadvantage against archers and mages.
2) Left Axe damage without styles is broken at the moment but is more then compensated with the high style damage of the Left Axe.

Starting as a Viking
A Berserker begins his life as a Viking. You share the Viking class with the aspiring Warrior, Thane and Skald until level 5. The Viking begins with 4 different skills he can raise: Sword, Hammer, Axe and Parry.
When you reach level 2 you should decide on one weapon you want to use and raise this skill each level. The only way to go at the moment is to raise your Axe skill (see explination below). You should change your weapon from the training weapon to a yellow weapon in the weapon class you selected. You will get a small training shield when you reach level 2.

Becoming a Berserker
When you reach level 5 go to your advanced trainer in Jordheim or Gna Faste and join the House of Modi and receive the Axe of Modi as a gift from your god. It can be used in your left hand and will help you in the next few levels. Additional you will get some Berserker skills. You will get 2x your reached level specialisation points beginning with level 6.

Berserker Skills

Left Axe
Left Axe is the ability to use Axes in your left hand and you can specialise in this skill that gives you additional styles. The Left Axe styles are the most powerful styles in Midgard. You can find the styles of all Midgard weapons in the Style Section. How is Left Axe working? I don't have the exact numbers, but the formula must be like this:
Total = (50% of right hand weapon + 50% of left hand weapon) * (15% + (Left Axe Skill/2)%)
The weapons delays are averaged to get the attack speed.
The problem in this formula is that if you use two weapons with different damage output (quality, size, material, quest item, …) the total damage will be the same or going down compared to the damage of the better weapon. When you are using a 2H weapon or a 1h weapon with shield you would have a better chance to survive in the harsh lands of Midgard if there were not the powerful left axe styles.

Berserk
Berserk is an ability where you can enter a rage in which you are nearly defenseless, but the attack speed and chance to hit increases noticeable and each hit is a critical hit. You can use this ability every 7minutes and it lasts for 20 seconds. The higher the Berserk level (I-IV) the more attackspeed increase you get (no official statement what the different Berserk levels are doing, this is just a guess).

Evade
Evade is the ability to avoid melee attacks directed to you. The higher the level of the evade is, the higher is the chance to evade the attack (5% per level). Magic items giving you +2 evade means that the chance to evade is raised by 2 percentpoints not the evadelevel is raised by 2.

Bear Form
The Berserker is shapechanging into a Vendo (Bear-Human) when he enters Berserk mode. This ability has no special advantage beside the Berserk ability.

Specialisation
In the first four levels max out your main weapon skill (Sword, Hammer, Axe)
In level 5 you begin to raise Left Axe until you got it to a maximum of your current level. Keep you Left Axe skill at the max and raise Axe again. Everyone must think himself about the final specialisation in level 50.
The damage of the Left Axe is based on the Left Axe skill, and the damage of the right hand weapon based on the right hand weapon skill of your choice. This is new, as there was a bug where you had to use Axe as you main weapons as the damage of the left axe was based on the Axe skill.
My suggestion would be:
Right hand weapon 45, Left Axe 50 and Parry 36 or
Right hand weapon 40, Left Axe 50 and Parry 41

Equipment
Try to keep you equipment on a yellow to blue level and boost it with quest items the Berserker can use. Nice equipment for the Berserker in lower levels are the Morra Sleeves(7), the Ruby Jerkin(7), in teen levels the Birk Strength Sleeves(15) and the Berbenet Legs(15). Additional you should try to get the Fimx(11) and if you play a Dwarf the Dwarven Glima(7) and of course the Berserker Strength necklace(11). Also do all the epic quests you get beginning from level 15 and each 5 levels a follow up quest.

In a group you will be the main tank most of the time, because you are dealing more damage then every other class. Additionally you are more vulnerable then the other melee classes that are hiding behind their chain armor. This makes it harder for the healer to keep you alive. The best thing you can do is to wait with using your styles until the main tank (Warrior) got enough aggro. Then you can begin with your high damage styles. Another possibility is to use the detaunt styles all the time.

I hope that I was able to help you choosing a class or playing the Berserker. If you have any comments feel free to send me a mail.

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Design and Artwork © 2001 by Krawak, Content @ by Kharon