TERA Online Berserker Detailed Guide

TERA Online Berserker Detailed Guide by Dlquinton

This guide was produced by dlquinton AKA Getinthevan of guild Orlerae.
Guild Orlerae is currently recruiting, for more info visit our guild website.

Table of Contents
1 – Videos
2 – Just a few things…
3 – Abilities and Glyphs
4 – Gear Me Up, Scottie!
5 – Today We’re Talking Abou- OOH SHINY! (crystals)

1 – Videos

The following videos are NOT mine, if anyone has problems with me posting them send me a private message and I will remove them. I’ll be adding my own videos soon I promise.

Dungeon Videos
Bastion of Lok
Sinestral Manor

Solo Videos
Level 20 World Boss Lanok
Level 26 Naga Warlord
Level 23 World Boss Arakia
Level 58 Elite Farming

PVP Videos
Level 22 Berserker VS Ranged Duels
Level 45 Berserker VS Sorcerer (two parts)
Level 50 Berserker BG PVP
ProximityAlert’s Guide to Berserker PVP: Berserker VS Warrior
ProximityAlert’s Guide to Berserker PVP: Berserker VS Slayer

2 – Just a Few Things…

Am I a Berserker?
Do you like massive critical hits, strong burst damage, keeping your opponent on their back (wink), heavy armor and huge f@#$ing axes? If you said yes to ANY of those things then yes, you are a Berserker.

The berserker deals death and destruction with the business end of his axe. He relies on critical hits and good mana regeneration to lay down the smackdown. With several attacks that cause knockdowns and stuns the berserker does a good job of keeping the enemy on it’s back (wink) and vulnerable to higher damage from himself and his group members.

His slow plodding movement in combat is the downside of wearing heavy armor and carrying a huge f#$^ing axe everywhere, the pro to wearing heavy armor is an increased resistance to damage and knockdowns.

Can a Berserker Tank?
The short answer is “in a pinch.” While the berserker wears heavy armor, he lacks the threat generation and other skills of a warrior or a lancer. So if your tank goes down and you only need to tank for a short period of time, you can take some hits. But don’t count on holding onto the mobs very long at all.

Are Berserkers Really Crap in PVP?
An unskilled Berserker is really crap in 1v1 PVP. It takes a considerable amount of skill to really own it up as a berserker in PVP until practically endgame, it’s not impossible, it’s just difficult. But beware the skilled berserker in a group deathmatch, he’ll tear your face off, flash fry it and feed it to you on a titanium spork.

Summary
Berserkers are beast in PvE with burst damage, huge crits and great knockdowns. They’re pretty crap tanks. And they’re good in PvP when properly skilled.

3 – Abilities and Glyphs

Here I’ll list the skill, it’s description and how useful it is. I’m starting with skills that I’ve actually had experience with, which is all the skills up to level 32. Useful PVP glyphs will be marked with [PVP], useful PVE glyphs will be marked with [PVE] and glyphs useful for both will be marked [Both]
*Update*
-Added skills up to level 58 with glyphs
-All skill tooltips in green text are from max skill rank at 58
-Skills and glyphs above level 38 will have some notes that are pure conjecture on my part as I have no experience with them

(1) Axe Block MP Cost: 100. Cooldown: 1 second. Cast Time: Instant. Your standard damage blocker. It blocks the amount of damage equal to the block value on your axe tooltip. It will interrupt many moves in their tracks to keep you alive.

[Both][3 points] Level 20. Glyph of Mindspark. Restores 3% MP. Upon further review, I’m placing this glyph at a much higher usefulness than before. I didn’t realize that it restores 3% mana for every successful block, as long as you hold the skill.
[4 points] Level 20. Glyph of the Pump. 30% Chance to increase strength by 20% for 5 seconds. Not a long enough time to make it useful at all. Especially for 4 points.

(1) Combo Attack. Cast Time: Instant. Skill Power: 191 211 231 313 your bread and butter mana generator. Berserker mana is closer to a rage system. We generate mana from combo attack, the few mana regen skills we have, buffs and mystic motes. As soon as combat ends our mana will begin to dwindle into nothing.

[4 points] Increases MP regeneration by 15%. Useful until other glyphs become available.
[6 points] Level 20. Glyph of Carving. Increase critical hit rate by 10%. Combo Attack doesn’t do enough damage to make this useful.

(2) Cyclone. Cooldown 7 seconds. Cast Time: Instant. MP Cost: 60 60 60 120 Skill Power: 2876 Charge up for a whirlwind of death. Overcharge to remove a small amount of health from yourself but double the attack power. You’ll be using this attack for forever, it’s effective against pretty much any type of opponent, though as time goes on you may want to trade it for other abilities for BAMs and bosses. Gains multiple levels of charge as you level up.

[Both][6 points] Level 20. Glyph of Carving. Doubles critical hit rate. Most useful glyph for this skill since berserkers live off crits.
[PVP][4 points] Level 20. Glyphs of Haste. Speeds charging by 25%. Useful for soloing and PVP.
[6 points] Level 20. Glyph of Power. Increase power by 12% when overcharged. Doesn’t net more damage than Glyph of Carving.

(4) Flatten. Cooldown 8 seconds. Cast time 1.3 seconds. MP Cost: 250. Skill Power: 1615 Pound the ground, stunning and potentially knocking down any enemy within 4 meters of the point of impact. This is a staple ability. Period. High chance to knockdown makes it perfect for any enemy you’ll face.

[PVE][4 points] Level 20. Glyph of Power. Increases attack power by 25%. Excellent boost in damage for this ability.
[Both][4 points] Level 20. Glyph of the Swift. Decreases cast time by 25%. Good for soloing and PVP.

(8) Thunder Strike. Cooldown 3 seconds. Cast Time: 1.3 seconds. MP Cost: 70 70 70 140. Skill Power: 1880. Charge to unleash a devastating attack that has twice the attack power of Flatten. Critical hits with this skill will bring most normal enemies the same level as you down to half of one quarter health. Gains multiple levels of charge as you level up.

[Both][3 points (need confirmation I’m pretty sure it’s 6)] Level 20. Glyph of Carving. Doubles critical hit rate. This ability. has a very high attack power, meaning huge crits to match your huge hits.
Both][7 points] Level 26. Glyph of the Slick. Eliminates slowed movement while charging. Great way to stay out of trouble. Worth the 7 points for the movement speed you gain back.
[3 points] Level 20. Glyph of the Sanative. Decreases HP consumption by 50% when over-charged. The amount of HP you lose for over charge isn’t that much to begin with.

(10) Triumphant Shout. Cooldown 20 seconds. Restores 100 mana and your mana doesn’t decay for 20 seconds. The first mana regeneration ability a berserker learns. Handy for preparing for a boss pull but doesn’t really become useful until paired with other mana regeneration skills learned later.

[3 points] Level 20. Glyph of Spirit. Increases MP regeneration by 50%. None of the glyphs for this ability are very useful but I’m listing them anyway.
[4 points] Level 20. Glyph of Energy. Decreases cooldown by 30%.
[PVP][3 points] Level 32. Glyph of Influence: Dash. reduces MP cost for next chain skill by 75: Dash. PVP zerkers will want to give this glyph a look.

Retaliate. Cooldown 15 seconds. Skill Power: 638.Leap to your feet and attack your target, you can only use this attack when knocked down. Instantly swings you to your feet with the push of a button. VERY useful skill and has a curiously high chance to knockdown your target.

(16) Vampiric Blow. Cooldown 15 seconds. Cast Time: Instant. MP Cost: 40 40 40 80. Skill Power: 1413.Charge up to deal damage, a portion of which returns to you as healing. Keeping this move on an easy button will save your bacon when the healer is dead or you’re on your own and chain pulling mobs.

[5 points] Level 20. Glyph of Power. Increases power by 25%. You won’t be using this skill regularly enough to warrant wasting the 5 points on it.

Tenacity. Cooldown 60 seconds. Restores 240 MP. When paired with Triumphant Shout it’s a useful skill when to use before a boss fight so you can get stuck in quicker.

[3 points] Level 20. Glyph of Energy. Decreases cooldown by 20%. Again, you won’t be using this skill enough to warrant using points on it.
[5 points] Level 20. Glyph of Balance. Increases balance by 50% for 15 seconds.

(22) Fiery Rage. Cooldown 30 seconds. MP Cost: 80. Increases strength by 20% but sacrifices 40% endurance. Lasts 25 seconds. A very risky skill to use since endurance is basically defense but the damage increase can really tear some heads off. Recommend caution when using this attack.

[5 points] Level 22. Glyph of the Pump. 30% chance to increase strength by an additional 10% for 20 seconds. Not worth 5 points, same with most glyphs for this skill.
[PVP][5 points] Level 22. Glyph of Fleetfoot. Increase combat movement by 20 for 15 seconds. Every bit of combat speed is important in a PVP fight.

(24) Leaping Strike. Cooldown 7 seconds. MP Cost: 300. Skill Power: 324. Leap towards your target and smash down, deals 5x damage to knocked down targets. A high mana cost make this an attack you don’t want in your regular rotation since not every Flatten does a knock down make. But you do want it on an easy to reach button because this attack will annihilate anything, especially with a critical hit.

[Both][5 points] Level 24. Glyph of Power. Increases attack power by 25%. Could be worth a look at a higher level when you have more points to spend.
[Both][4 points] Level 24. Glyph of Persistence. 30% Chance to eliminate cooldown. Same as Glyph of Power, more useful at later levels.

(26) Mocking Shout. Cooldown 30 seconds. Momentairly stun and knock down targets within 7 meters. Useful when surrounded by enemies and you need to get out, or to use in preperation for Leaping Strike.

[5 points] Level 26. Glyph of Haste. Speeds casting by 50%. Not very useful.

(30) Unchained Anger. Cast Time 1 Second. Cooldown 10 seconds. HP Cost: 4300. Sacrifice HP to gain 467 MP. This skill is great when used on its own or when combined with the other two mana regenerating skills we’ve already learned. But beware the health sacrifice as it can catch up with you quickly.

[4 points] Level 30. Glyph of the Sanative. Decreases HP consumption by 50%. Could be worth a look eventuallly.
[Both][5 points] level 30. Glyph of Pounding. Increases knockdown by 10% for 20 seconds. Knockdown is very important for a berserker so this glyph will be very handy.

(32) Dash. Cooldown 25 seconds. MP Cost 125. Increase speed by 75% for 15 seconds. Extremely useful when you need to reach or escape an enemy quickly.

[4 points] Level 32. Glyph of Energy. Decreases cooldown by 25%. This ability isn’t used consistently enough to blow 4 points on it. The skill is useful, but the cooldown is small enough that it doesn’t matter.

(36) Lethal Strike. Cooldown: 7 Seconds. HP Cost: 987 987 987 1974. Skill Power: 2119 A skill that consumes HP instead of MP to do damage. This skill is pretty beast, but the health cost can be high so use only when you’re in a real pinch and need to knock some heads in.

[3 points] Level 20. Glyph of Power. This is a skill I would only use as a last ditch because of the health cost. So spending 3 point on it doesn’t seem feasible to me. It’s only 3 though, so having this attack with some extra juice on it could come in handy.

Both][6 points] Level 26. Glyph of the Slick. Eliminates slowed movement while charging. Great way to stay out of trouble and avoid taking extra hits while this skill siphons off your health.

(40) Staggering Strike. Cast Time: Instant. Cooldown: 20 Seconds. MP Cost: 100. Skill Power: 899.
Spins and briefly stuns your target while doing a decent chunk of damage. Combine this skill with some of the crystals and axes that increase damage and critical damage from the rear and this easily becomes a skill to use whenever it’s off cooldown. Could be annoying for your tank in a group however…

[3 Points] Glyph of Influence. Reduces MP cost for the next chain skill: Flatten.

[4 Points] Glyph of Energy. Decreases cooldown by 20%.

[4 Points] Glyph of Blaze. Speeds charging for the next chain skill by 30%: Thunder Strike.

(46) Fearsome Shout. Cast Time: 1.4 Seconds. Cooldown: 60 Seconds. MP Cost: 350. Monsters within 7m run 8m away for 3 seconds. Enemy player movement is hindered. A great oh s#!t button when you’re surrounded by baddies, and when you want that pesky archer to stop bouncing around so you can smash him into the ground with the force of a rogue thunderbolt, thereby ending his existence as though he’d never been born.

[3 Points] Glyph of Powerlink. Increases power for the next chain skill by 25%: Staggering Strike.

(52) Bloodlust. Cast Time: Instant. Cooldown 180 Seconds. MP
Cost: 600. Your strength increases by 26, your stun and knockdown resistance by 50%. Also, skill damage increases by 15% when attacking other players. Lasts 30 seconds. I don’t even think I need to say anything about this cup of awesome.

[4 Points] Glyph of Brilliance. Decreases MP consumption by 150.

(56) Flurry of Blows. Cast Time: Instant. Cooldown 45 Seconds. MP Cost: 100. Increases your attack speed by 20% for 15 seconds. Complete no brainer. Use it whenever it’s off cooldown.

[5 Points] Glyph of Lingering. Increases effect duration by 30%.

Inescapable Doom. Cast Time: The website I’m referencing says 60 seconds with can’t be right. Someone confirm this please. Cooldown: 120 Seconds. MP Cost: 250. Briefly slows movement of targets within 7m radius by 60%. Prevents other players from using evasive and movement skills. DEATH TO THE BOUNCY ONES!!!!! That is all.

[4 Points] Glyph of Energy. Decreases cooldown by 20%.

[3 Points] Glyph of Influence. Reduces MP Cost for the next chain skill by 63: Flatten.

[5 Points] Glyph of Lingering. Increases effect duration by 30%.

[4 Points] Glyph of Blaze. Speeds casting by 25% for the next chain skill: Flatten.

Evasive Smash. “Evasive Smash is a new two-part skill that interrupts a charging skill to perform an evasive roll, and then delivers an attack. Evasive Smash can be used only in conjunction with charging skills. Press the skill button immediately after the evasive roll to make the attack. Damage varies depending on the level of the charging skill. The Evasive Smash glyph is the Glyph of Power. It increases damage by 25%.” Taken from the open beta patch notes.

4 – Gear Me Up, Scottie!

Big F#$%ing Axes

The Golden Formula for berserker axes is simple.
Rear Damage>Boss Mob/BAM Damage>Enraged Monster Damage = Attack Speed>Trash Damage
If you follow The Golden Formula when picking a weapon for your berserker then you can’t go wrong. Let’s take a look at the much sought after Websplitters Axe. Superior quality, enchantable, and meets the highest two items on The Golden Formula. To top it all off it has an extra bonus for damage to prone targets. A berserker’s dream axe.

Gird Your Loins in Steel

As near as I can tell from looking at various websites like this one, all Greaves will increase your movement speed by X%, all Gauntlets will increase your critical hit chance by X. NEEDS CONFIRMATION
Hauberks on the other hand are a different beast. They have damage reducers as many and varied as berserker axes do. For these, we must look to The Golden Formula v1.1 for guidance.
Boss Monster/BAM>Monsters With Highest Aggro=Damage When Knocked Down>Trash Damage

5 – Today We’re Talking Abou- OOH SHINY! (crystals)

*DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER* This section has undergone some edits in light of some discussion that happened on page 6 between ValkyrieLaw and Aleatha. All edits added on 4/10 are from them, cheers mates. You guys should check out their maths, it’s very informative if you have the head for it.

Crystals. We’ll be talking about what’s best for [PVP], [PVE] and [Both] for armor and weapons.

NOTES:
*Any crystal that provides a buff such as a shield or health regeneration cannot be stacked.
*For armor crystals, all except for just a few will be [Both].

A few words before we begin

The format for the names of crystals has two parts: [Name] such as Relentless followed by [level quantifier] such as Hexage. Every so many levels you gain there’s a new level quantifier (Rhomb, Carbochon, Hexage and so on) but the name stays the same (Relentless, Poised, Fleetfoot and so on). Because of this format, I’ll be dealing with the name instead of the level quantifier. Ex: Relentless X where X is the level quantifier. A Relentless X will always increase your HP, but not always by the same amount as determined by the level quantifier.

Crystals can be bought from specific vendors and stronger versions of the ones you can buy can drop from monsters.

In addition, I’ll be placing a scale of 1 to 5 with each crystal judging its usefulness with 1 being not at all and 5 being extremely so.

Armor Crystals

[PVE 5]Empyrean. 100% chance of providing Shield X (I, II, III and so on based on LQ) when attacked by an enraged monster. Another no-brainer. As you ascend in levels monsters who enrage become more and more frequent out in the world, and in dungeons they appear as early as the Island if I’m not mistaken.

[Both 5]Warding. 50% chance to grant you a magical damage shield when you get knocked down. Seeing as knock downs are a significant part of both PVP and PVE this crystal can really save your bacon. As a PvE zerker I used it very often in group situations for BAMs and dungeon monsters.

[Both 5]Redeeming. 50% chance of providing Health Regeneration X (I, II, III and so on based on LQ). This crystal saved my bacon more times than I can count in soloing and groups and dungeons. I can only speculate as to it’s usefulness in PVP but I would certainly want one along for the ride.

[PVP 5]Grieving. Immediately regenerates X MP when attacked by a player. Mana is the lifeblood of a berserker. We usually only generate it when we hit things. So if we can generate it when things hit is, then that’s a no-brainer. If you only need 55 mana for a leaping strike to put you within striking distance of a sorcerer who’ wailing on you at top speed then bye bye Squishypants Von Spellmaker.

[PVE 4]Poised. Reduces damage (taken?) by X% when attacked by enraged monsters. Enraged monsters, even normal ones, have increased damage, and I’ve observed that they crit more often and attack faster. Sometimes they even have moves they only do when enraged or their attack patterns at least will switch around. Receiving less damage when they get all red and puffy and man is a good thing in my book.

[PVE 4]Relentless. Increases your HP by X. Based on how many crystal slots you have, if you stack three of these it could increase your HP by ~1/10 to 2/10 which is nothing to scoff at when soloing. I probably wouldn’t take it into a dungeon with me, there are better options. And I’m unsure for PVP but my gut tells me there’s also better options.

[Both 3]Resolute. Decreases damage (I’m assuming damage taken?) by X% when below 50% health. I’m all for that. Useful for soloing without a healer or 1v1 PVP. Some people scoff at these crystals but I see potential. Anything to take some strain off the healer, though health can drop so fast in this game I would expect to at least be getting glanced at by a healer if I’m below 50% health.

[Both 3]Protective. Resists critical hits X% more (often?) when below 50% health. Critical hits can be a real bear and put a serious wrench in your gears if you end up dead on account of one. Useful for 1v1 and soloing, but if I’m in a group with a healer I’d be hoping for a heal or to be popping a potion by 50% health.

[Both 2]Vigorous. Restores X amount of health every five seconds. To scale, the X amount of health is very small (32 for a level 23 crystal) which compared to your fairly large HP at 23 is like spitting into a kiddie pool to fill it up. Still, it could come in handy for stopping at a campfire to regenerate some health.

[PVE 1]Fleetfoot. Increases movement speed by X when out of combat. Movement speed when out of combat. Reaching your next monster to kill is nice and all, but not nice enough to use one of these crystals in one of your very limited slots.

Weapon Crystals

[PVE 5]Acrimonious. Increases critical damage to Bosses/BAMs by X times. See the math laid out by Aleatha and ValkyrieLaw on page six (link found at the top of the crystals section) to see how awesomely useful this crystal is for boss mobs.

[Both 5]Carving. Increases chance to land a critical hit by X%. Berserkers live off crits. Enough said. As you gain more natural critical chance from equipment and enchantments this crystal will probably be phased out in favor of Mutinous and Acrimonious.

[PVE 5]Mutinous. Increases damage to boss mobs by X%.

[Both 5]Savage. Critical attacks do an additional X times damage when attacking from the rear. DING DING DING! One of the most useful crystals for a berserker in a group environment for either PVP or PVE. Soloing and 1v1 you’re not going to get as much use out of this crystal.

[PVE 5]Backbiting. Increases critical damage to normal enemies by X times. Great for leveling and questing. Worth keeping in your bag at the very least.

[Both 4]Infused. Provides MP Regeneration X (I, II, III and so on based on LQ) when knocked down. Mana is your lifeblood and knockdowns occur often. No-brainer, but there are better ones out there.

[PVP 4]Salivating. Immediately regenerates X mana when attacking another player. Like it’s twin armor crystal this is an excellent PVP shiny.

[PVP 4] Swift. Increases movement speed in combat by X. Considering how slow the berserker is in combat, anything that could help get you closer to your swiftly fleeing target is a plus in my book.

[Both 4]Forceful. Critical attacks will increase your Strength when attacking opponents from the rear. It’s unclear how much your strength is increased by, if anyone has knowledge PM me and I’ll adjust this. Strength adjusts your attack power, meaning more damage. I’ve yet to test this crystal personally but it sounds good in theory. I’m testing it in CBT4 so look again next Monday for an update on this one.

[PVE 4]Focused. Your attacks do an additional X times critical damage when target is enraged.

[Both 4]Brutal. Inflicts an additional X% damage to knocked-down opponents. Knockdowns are a big part of your arsenal so this gem is great, though there are better options.

[Both 3]Glistening. Critical hits provide MP Regeneration X (I, II, III and so on based on LQ) when attacking from the rear. Recent experiences and discussion has changed my mind on this crystal, you get a lot of MP from a lot of places so you can do better than this crystal.

[Both 3]Cruel. Increases your attack power against knocked down opponents. Unclear how much it does increase your attack power and I haven’t been able to find any more information on it to suggest how good it might be.

[Both 3]Furious. Chance to an additional inflict X% damage to enemies when (you?) below 50%. I’m not sure of this is referring to your health or the enemies. But I’m acting on the assumption that it’s your health. Useful for soloing or 1v1 when you’re not guaranteed to always be over 50% health. But if you’re in a group I’ve talked about this previously.

[Both 3]Virulent. Critical hits also inflict Poison X (I, II, III and so on depending on LQ) when against knocked down enemies. I’m on the fence about this one. First off, I have no idea if it stacks or not. The damage I’ve observed a single stack putting out is very small. So overall not very useful.

[Both 2]Brilliant. Provides MP Regeneration of X per 5 seconds. The amount of mana you get is so small you’d have to stack multiple of these for it to even make a dent.

[Both 2]Cunning. Increases maximum MP by X. As long as you keep upgrading your gear you shouldn’t have any need for this crystal. There are other crystals that are way better for your weapon’s slots.


What’s to come…

More Gear info
More videos
Screenshots
More skills and glyphs