Berserker Class Guide (Classic - Prophecy of Ro)
This guide covers the Berserker Class from the Expansion they're added in (GoD) to the end of Prophecy of Ro which I consider the end of the Classic era of EQ. As of the time of writing (2024) Berserkers are the newest class in the game, there has been nothing else added after them in the recent decades.
Berserkers are a pure melee DPS class and they become the kings of melee DPS once they are added into the game. Typically Berserkers and Monks will be the top two melee DPS classes - this changes depending on the raid, player and expansion though. During this era of the game, the Berserker class will be very straight forward much like all other melee. Almost all of your damage will come from Auto Attack and you only have a few buttons to hit (most of which are Cooldowns).
Normally I give my experience with the class at the top of these guides, with Berserkers my amount of experience is quite low. I played this class a lot during House of Thule and Veil of Alaris, I did a lot of Decap farming on my Berserker in The Grounds once that becomes a thing. Aside from this I have very little experience on the class, I had to do a lot of research to guarantee that this guide is accurate. Research sources can be found at the bottom of this page.
Important Stats & Focus Items
Since Berserkers are added into the game during Gates of Discord they never have to struggle with maxing out their important stats. There are tons of gear options available during GoD that will allow you to get all of your important stats to max before you even reach the level 65 cap.
As a Berserker you're going to want Strength and Dexterity the most, they'll provide you the most DPS. You'll also want to get Attack on your gear, this is a secondary stat but gives you a lot of damage too. Stamina, Agility, HP and AC are all important for survivability, they're typically my secondary focus.
Strength: This increases your Attack and weight limits
Dexterity: Increases chance to proc during combat and accuracy.
Stamina: Gives you HP.
Agility: Increases AC.
Once Planes of Power is released you will start to notice Heroic Stats on your gear. This will become more and more common as time goes on until eventually every piece of gear will have Heroic Stats on it. Benefits from these stats are kind of like real stats but slightly worse.
Each of these Heroic Stats will give diminishing returns past their soft caps. For this reason it's typically best not to focus entirely on one and to spread them around a bit. As a Berserker you'll typically want to get Heroic Dexterity, Heroic Agility, Heroic Strength and Heroic Stamina. Out of all 4, Heroic STR is the least important by far.
Heroic Dexterity (Accuracy/Proc Chance): Heroic Dex increases your accuracy and proc chance during combat; it has diminishing returns later in the game once you start getting a lot of it.
Heroic Agility (Avoidance/Strike Through): Increases AC, Dodge, Block and Many of the most important Mod2s. Use my Heroic Stats Guide for more information.
Heroic Strength (Strength): Increases Endurance. Improves the percentage of AC that gets tranfered from your shield to be used for damage mitigation. It also improves melee attack damage very minimally.
Heroic Stamina (HP/Mitigation): Increases HP, HP Regen, and HP Regen Cap. It also gives you some Mod2s which help with damage and stun mitigation.
Want more information about Heroic Stats and what they do/how they're beneficial? Curious what Mod2s are? Take a look at my Heroic Stats Guide for more information about what each stat does and why we're getting the ones that we're focusing on.
Important Focus Effects
Starting in Luclin and becoming more common as the game goes on certain pieces of gear will come with Focus Effects. For melee classes you don't start getting tons of Focus Effects until OoW and beyond. Below are the main Focus Effects that you want to get on your gear when they become available.
****Haste: Not really a focus, but this is the most important secondary thing you should get on your gear. Eventually it becomes a staple on your gear in the future and you don't have to seek it out anymore.
****Cleave: Increases your chance to crit with all combat skills by a significant amount. This is the most important focus you should seek out once it's available.
***Ferocity: Your chance to double attack is increased by a small amount. Your second biggest DPS increase will come from this.
**Improved Dodge: Chance to Dodge is increased by a moderate amount. Pretty much gives you a bit more survivability.
*Improved Parry/Block: Chance to Parry and Block is increased by a moderate amount. You should never be using a shield, so you only benefit from the Parry. Increases survivability marginally.
*Sharpshooting: Once DoN comes out you'll get a new skill called Destroyer's Volley which becomes part of your main rotation. This skill has you throwing axes which means you'll benefit (very minorly) from this.
Important Skills, AAs & Disciplines
Berserkers are a pure melee class and most of their damage will come from Auto Attack. The only skill you should be using in your DPS rotations is Frenzy which you can /autoskill Frenzy if you're playing on official servers. Private Servers may or may not have the autoskill feature.
You will get other skills like Head Crush and Leg Cut, Head Crush is a Stun and Leg Cut is a Snare. Both are situationally useful and worth using in group content or if you're soloing. War Cry and the upgrades you get for it are the main skills that will go into your rotation during this era. I will talk a bit more about the rotation to use in the How to Play section below.
Another disc that Berserkers get that you'll be using is their disc line of Summoning Axes. Every couple of levels you will be able to create a new set of Throwing Axes, these are intended to be used for pulling and in my experience almost no one does. You will eventually get a disc called Destroyer's Volley during Dragons of Norrath which gives you a good reason to summon these axes. This skill will become part of your DPS rotation once it's added.
AAs
Just like with all of the other classes, I am going to cover clicky AAs only. There are tons of passive AAs and basically all of them are worth getting. Funny enough, despite Berserkers being added in GoD you have some AAs that were added in previous expansions. Starting in Luclin you'll get Rampage and Tireless Sprint. Rampage is a terrible AA, Warriors get it too. As time goes on and you can decrease the cooldown and make it do more it sucks less.
The next one, Tireless Sprint, is something that makes you run faster for a short period of time. Not the best either, but probably better than Rampage if we're being honest. Added in GoD is Desperation which sounds like it would be useful but I don't see anyone encourage to use it during burns. So I am assuming it has stacking issues, double check me.
Our next AA, Untamed Rage, becomes a staple of our class. This is one of the AAs you activate with your burn cooldowns on nameds/boss fights. Make sure to stack your burns because that is how you deal the most damage. Check out my How to Play section below for more information.
Another two AAs which become part of our burn rotation are added in Omens of War. You have Blood Pact and Savage Spirit, both of these will increase your DPS at the cost of some health. The next clicky AA you get is Mass Group Buff aka MGB. This is added in DoDH and I believe it's intended for you to use your War Cry line with this to buff your entire raid.
Disciplines are the next thing to cover, specifically the ones with longer cooldowns. Below you'll find a list of your most valuable Offensive and Defensive discs.
Offensive Disciplines
Since Berserkers were added into the game during Gates of Discord, that means all of their Discs were too. I think that you can find the Discs in PoK by visiting Kurlond Axebringer, but on the off chance that they make you work for it... the likely other place is in Abysmal Sea at Saylsa Growlur.
Cleaving Rage (54) - Gates (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases chance to crit with all skills by 10,000%.
Cleaving Anger (65) - Gates (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Chance to critical hit with all skills increased by 200% and your chance to score a Crippling Blow is increased by 200%.
Unpredictable Rage (66) - Omens (Allakhazam, Lucy)
When damaged you have a chance to lash out and cause additional damage. Only useful when tanking.
Vengeful Flurry (70) - Omens (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Gives Hundred Hands effect, increases attack chance. Also increases Double Attack chance by 10,000%.
Defensive Disciplines
Reckless Discipline (56) - Gates (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Your chance to riposte is increased by 10,000%
Battle Focus Discipline (59) - Gates (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases your chance to avoid melee damage by 10,000%
How To Play: Berserker Basics
Like I have said a few times before in this guide, almost all of your damage in this era is going to come from Auto Attack. You're going to want to /autoskill Frenzy whenever you get it and that's basically it. You can use your Snare and Stun discs while leveling up but it's not going to make or break anything.
Aside from that, the only skill you get that you'll be spamming each fight in this era is Destroyer's Volley. Our burn rotation(s) can be found below. Your Main Burn rotation is what you'll use at the start of the fight, after that you'll be using the Secondary Burn. Once that fades (if the fight isn't over yet), you'll be using the third and final burn.
(Prophecy of Ro) Main Burn: Battle Cry, Cleaving Rage Discipline, Untamed Rage (AA), Savage Spirit (AA), Blood Pact (AA)
(Prophecy of Ro) Secondary Burn: Cleaving Anger Discipline, Glyph, Epic 2.0 (keep this up every 3min with Sham 2.0)
(Prophecy of Ro) Third Burn: Vengeful Flurry Discipline
Note: Your Savage Spirit AA will not stack with Shaman 2.0 Epic Clicky so make sure you time both appropriately. Proper ADPS timing with your burns is critical to maximize your DPS!
That's really all there is to say about Berserkers in this era. Oh, don't forget to turn on Auto Attack! That's an important one!
More Tips & Tricks
- My research documents for this include Berserker PoR Burn Rotation, OoW Burn Rotation, Zerker Discord with lots of info.