Torchlight 2 Berserker Autoattack DW Claw Build Guide

Torchlight 2 Berserker Autoattack DW Claw Build Guide by Bloodytrailz

So, you want to be a badass dual wielding berserker, and you want to play elite? Well prepare to farm, or prepare to die…a lot!

Elite offers a huge challenge to berserkers in act1…the beginning part is hard to survive (1-20, every boss fight is extremely difficult at this level)
And I’m here to offer what has worked for me (albeit, this method can be time consuming if executed poorly, but I’m here to help with that.)

Note: This build is tailored towards Claws due to attack speed and not needing a cleaving attack due to skill choice. However, other weapons can work just as well as long as they have relatively fast attacks (Under .7 attacks/Second)

—–=====Skill Build=====—–
This would be a MAXED OUT build
http://torchlight2armory.com/skill-calc … ccc9RxpKJO
*OPTIONAL* Take out 14 points from red wolf, and invest into Wolf Shade, for a distraction for mobs and more health flow to you.
The last 9 points have a lot of options.
-+9 into storm claws. This will take it from a 2 target 40% damage to a 4 target 67% damage. That is a substantial increase in overall AoE output.
-+9 into blood hunter. This will increase your healing *PER SECOND* from 5% max hp to 9.5% max hp (nearing doubling your active health regeneration)
-+9 into frenzy mastery. This will take your frenzy from 6 seconds to 10.5 seconds. While we do recharge quickly, the more time we spend in frenzy, the more overall time we spend with 100% critical stikes and other benefits.
+9 into rampage. This will increase the proc from 4% to 8.5%… not too bad, 1 in 25 mobs for the proc > 1 in 12 mobs for the proc. Not my first pick by far, as i don’t like to rely on rampage at all, but still a viable option.

But since realistically, you DO have to level, I’m going to break it down for the first 50 levels or so. (Beyond that you just take what you want, when you want it)

Beginning of the game:
Level 2+3 === Take Shadow Burst (Heal) + Blood Hunger (Heal) for survivability purposes. (Respec the one point out of eviscerate when you first hit town!)
Level 3-28 === Get Shadow Burst, Howl, Stormclaw to rank 5 ASAP! Aside from that, 1 point into Red Wolf, and Rampage and then rank the rest into Executioner + Shred Armor.
Level 28-40 === Pick up Ice Shield ASAP, Get Shadow Burst rank 10 (at level 40) Get battle rage @ 28 and level to rank 5 ASAP. Get Battle Standard rank 5 asap. The rest go into Executioner/Shred armor still.
Level 40-55 === Battle Standard rank 10 and Howl rank 10. Put the rest of the points into Executioner+Shred Armor, anything spare beyond these goes into Red Wolf+Battle Rage+Coldsteel Mastery.
55+ === Start maxing whatever you wish in whatever order you wish.

Why have I chosen the skills I have chosen?
***Note: When using this build, i HIGHLY recommend using claws for the massive attack speed and their armor piercing capability. AoE is made up for by 2 procs (Red Wolf+Stormclaw) but you can use any weapons you desire.

In depth explanations of why I choose each skill and their purposes in the build!

-Blood Hunger (Passive) + Shadow Burst (Shadow burst): Amazing healing. Much more on shadowburst, but blood hunger is simply there to supplement your health supply constantly…where shadow burst is used as necessary. — Note: I leave blood hunger at 1 point because the scaling per level is terrible (.5% max health) and Shadow burst is a MUCH MORE powerful heal. And i just believe points are better elsewhere.

-Shadow burst (Active): Specifically on it’s own, outside the healing effect, it also shatters shields in a huge AoE and is an AMAZING mobility tool. Something of note is that you travel THROUGH mobs when using this skill…meaning you can take yourself out of any bad position very quickly with 2-3 shadow bursts in a row.

-Howl (Active): What an AMAZING debuff! -% Attack, Move, Cast speed and increased damage taken for (ONCE RANKED) a fairly large duration as well as radius.

-Stormclaw (Active): This skill is just free AoE damage that applies itself on our auto attacks. (Splash Damage Source #1)

-Red Wolf (Passive): Procs an effect which attacks 2 nearby targets when you deal a critical hit. This counts for ANY source of damage you deal (except MAYBE the bounces from stormclaw?)…yes…INCLUDING rage retaliation! … Now picture in your head… You are in frenzy state (charge mechanic) gaining 100% critical strikes…and each one is now proccing red wolf…that’s as good as 3 target splashing (on top of stormclaws )

-Armor Shred (Passive): With fast attacking weapons, this passive is… AMAZING!!!!! It increases your damage on attack by shredding ALL types of armor. And as a bonus, it INCREASES your physical armor which reduces incoming physical damage by a FLAT amount. Currently at lvl 35 with 310 base armor… using Dervish Skill (30% attack speed) i can hit absorption values nearing 600-1100 damage absorbed. AT LEVEL 35!!! — This passive is why we use fast weapons, as it directly scales upon your attack speed. This flat damage reduction is amazing when coupled with the following skill….

-Battle Rage (Active): Increases your damage and incoming physical damage by a percentage based on nearby enemies. Remember armor shreds flat absorption? Now we have a % based absorption to back it up!! This skill is amazing increasing your damage and physical defense by an absurd amount when you get into the middle of a bunch of mobs.

-Executioner (Passive): More damage, More charge speed for more criticals (which our build is slightly reliant on) which means more damage. All around, great passive. The charge generation goes really nice when paired with the following 2 abilities….

-Battle Standard (Active): Dodge? More defense! Knockback Resistance? AMAZING!!! (Being knocked back contributes for a HUGE LOSS of damage output for melee characters!!) Charge generation?!! MORE CRITICALS!!! Stacked with the charge buff from executioner, you more or less fill your charge bar in the blink of an eye! And free mana regen and as a kicker, it buffs all allies in range as well! and then combine it with

-Frenzy Mastery (Passive): This skill on its own is not necessarily overwhelming. But having that extra few seconds of charge per proc is very nice. This skill is left at a medium amount due to the fact that you will generate charge EXTREMELY QUICKLY. I choose 8 pts for 10 seconds because Dervish (Spell Scroll) lasts for 10 seconds and frenzy+dervish should always be used in conjunction with each other.

-Ice Shield (Active): A 1 point wonder until you start progressing into new game +’s. For a single point you have a 55% chance to deflect a missile attack and deal damage to the attacker and also generates charge to boot!. (If it criticals it can proc red wolf and attack nearby archers as well xD)

Well that about rounds up the skill build! Moving on….

—–=====STATS=====—–
Another big question people often have is about STATS? How much is too much, what do I spend where?

This section will be much shorter as there’s only 2 real stat layouts that make sense to the style.
Option A)
Pure damage dealer. (You will be relying 100% on armor/gems/skills for survival.)
Approximately 3.5/1.5 dex.
You have 395 points to spend, so you will end somewhere around a base of 135+15 dex (15 is lvl 1 base) and 360+15 str (15 is lvl 1 base)… somewhere in that ballpark. (This will give you around a 30% critical chance out of frenzy, which is around ideal.)
Suggested If: You are playing Casual/Normal/Veteran. If you have a constant partner who is an Engineer.
*NOT RECOMMENDED FOR* Hardcore! You will be far too squishy, and end up biting the dirt much sooner than later compared to option B.

Option B)
Balanced/more survivable.
This style basicall sacrifices str for vit in the long run.
2str:2dex:1vit until 150 base dex, then 3:2 str for the rest. you will end up around 200 str, 150 dex, 150vit (ish) and much more survivable, however your weapon damage/critical damage will suffer greatly compared to option A.

That’s about it. You are a strength loving machine!!! You can make deviations as you see fit, but that’s how I roll.

—–=====ITEMIZATION/GEAR CHOICES=====—–
And here comes the longer part, I’ll try to keep it simple as possible and as open ended as possible. Remember these are GOALS and PRIORITIES. You always need to balance your offense and your defense to each other. Have enough defense to survive and then worry about adding in damage as you can!

This build is specifically for elite, and this is where it comes to be a major difference. Elite mobs hit HARD ad because of that % damage reduction is a massive defense option. (Berserkers naturally have 25% reduction to all damage due to being melee! Let’s work on raising that!!)

Stats in order of importance: OFFENSE
1) Crit damage. We crit A LOT…this will be a HUGE source of damage output stastically… easily the priority by far.
2) Execution chance. Executes work well for berserkers, more damage and consistently keeping executioner passive charge bonus up. Aim for a minimum of 30% execution at all times to ALWAYS have charge buff up…aim for as high as possible (without sacrificing too much to other stats), but 30% is a bare minimum to me.
3) Fumble Chance. Fumbles are annoying, fumble is checked for BEFORE critical strike, so it denies us of our critical strikes..and we don’t like this!! Getting fumble as low as possible without sacrificing other stats is a very good thing!
4/5/6) % Damage, % Melee Damage, % Damage while dual wielding … These are effectively all the same thing to us… aim for the highest values possible (%all damage is the best of the 3 by a bit due to shadow burst/storms fury/elemental damage that is almost guaranteed to be on your claws at some point!)
—Every other damage related stat is not necessary in any form as we either have enough to cover our needs via stats or skills…or are just all around unnecessary.

Stats in order of imprtance: DEFENSE
1) % Damage reduction. THE GOD STAT! This stat turns you into a walking tank even being a heavily DPS oriented character…the best part is, you don’t even need it on your gear!! (Explained below where to get it)
2) Health. 2 words: Two words. No, really…SHADOW BURST! 60% of your max health!!! Hp+% reduction makes you invincible.
3) Armor/Resistances. Flat reductions aren’t bad, but once you have high enough % reduction and HP…armor and resistances are far from necessary.
Honestly, #1 and #2 are FAR AHEAD of #3 on the necessity of it. Armor and resistances are just something you get for free anyways…do not really pay any effort into purposefully increasing these… it is ALL about HP and % decrease!!

Here’s where it gets fun…How do we achieve these stats?
Every item in torchlight 2 can have 2 sockets (if not more) but how do we best utilize them?
Weapon Sockets: Critical Damage!!! First boss of act 2 drops a unique gem that offers +20% critical damage…other values are also available. 2 slots in each weapon? 80% crit damage baby yeah!!! (Starting in Act3, the Rare “Chaos” Ember gem actually has 21% crit damage in socket as well…so farming the manticore isn’t 100% necessary.)
Armor/Trinket Sockets: The first boss of act 1 drops an AMAZING GEM! 3% all damage reduction!!!! … As an alternative, the 20% critical damage gem from A2 boss1 also has a 2% damage reduction in armor.
—-FARM THESE 2 BOSSES CONTINUOUSLY UNTIL YOU HAVE A FULL SET! …. (I’m not kidding, Leave a portal at the Act1 boss and use it whenever you get near a waypoint to kill him and think he has respawned.)
Note: These bosses are on around a 15-20 minute respawn timer. The 2nd act boss is usually close enough to either (A) Town exit or (B) Waypoint that you can run there much faster than you could the boss of act 1… so use the waypoint.
…I cannot stress enough the importance of these gems!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (My level 35 berserker is currently decked out in 12x of the 3% damage reduction gem and 8 other various defensive gems that i’m looking to replace with them!)
….So you want MORE stress on the importance of the gem? Remember that 25% damage reduction base i told you about? There is 20 sockets to be filled in Armor/Trinkets… 20x 3 is 60%…. That is 85% damage reduction to EVERYTHING!!!!… for SOCKETS!!!!! This leaves you to get AS MUCH DAMAGE AS POSSIBLE on the actual statistics of the items you choose to wear!! (The only stat you need to worry about other than purely offensive items is HP!!!)

—–=====SPELL SCROLLS=====—–
There are many nice nice scrolls in the game, but I can easily narrow it down to some of the best of the best for this build. Use whatever you have, but Ideally you want to aim for the following handful (choose whichever your favorites are!)

NECESSARY!
Dervish (Active) – Increases attack and cast speed by a large amount for 10 seconds (30% at rank 1)…1 minute cooldown. <Always use this in tune to your frenzy for maximized damage output!!!

Optional/Choose from your favorite 3:
=Haste (Active) – Increases run speed and a minor attack speed boost. (I personally LOVE haste for traveling the map, for farm runs, for keeping up to teleporting mobs, and for closing the distance with ranged mobs) –Shadow burst does the last 2 as well, but haste is extremely mana efficient at doing so while offering a damage boost as well. Lasts for 12 seconds with a 12 second cooldown. (So yes, I cast this A LOT!)
=Weapon Expertise (Passive) – Straight up +% more damage and -Requirements for melee weaponry. Free damage, can’t complain…
=Adrenaline Rush (Passive) – % chance upon being hit to increase attack and move speed by a good amount (15% rank 2) for 4 seconds. Can only proc every 10 seconds (Maximum of 40% uptime)
=Dual Wielding (Passive) – % damage increase for dual wielding, which we do…free damage.
=Willpower (Passive) – This one is actually an interesting one I’m not 100% sure of, but is a definite option. % resistance to Slow and Immobilizion. The reason I value this at all is because when you are immobilzed, you are unable to shadow burst, and this is sort of the achilles heel of a DPS berserker staying alive! (I’m not sure if the resistance implies a chance to outright not be effected, or if it’s a reduction in the duration.)

—-Pet Skills:
Easy enough, 2 summons, Silence, Heal all.

Spells, Stats, Skills, Itemization… I think that about covers it.

When you put all of this information and knowledge together, you get something of a walking beast

Large chunks of damage reduction (although never as much as a shield user due to blocks powerful mechanic)
Large chunks of damage (both AoE+single target)
And a mobile/dashy DPS’er who can still take some beating.

Thank you for your time in reading this, and I hope this has given path and new hope to dual wielding zerkers everywhere!