Best Lost Ark Berserker Build: recommended skill levelling, engravings, and awakening skills for PvE and PvP
Everything you need to optimized your beefy greatsword wielder
Looking for the best Lost Ark Berserker build? The Berserker is one of the most powerful classes in Lost Ark and sits comfortably at the top of our tier list. This greatsword-wielding behemoth crushes foes with massive bursts of AoE damage, easily ripping through trash mobs and bosses alike. Berserker’s abilities have some long wind-ups and cooldowns, but when they land they’re devastating. This guide will break down the Berserker’s skills, leveling, engravings, and more to help you progress through Lost Ark’s vast endgame.
Looking for more Lost Ark class build guides?
- Artillerist
- Bard
- Berserker
- Deadeye
- Deathblade
- Destroyer
- Glaivier
- Gunlancer
- Gunslinger
- Paladin
- Scrapper
- Shadowhunter
- Sharpshooter
- Sorceress
- Soulfist
- Striker
- Wardancer
Best Lost Ark Berserker build: class overview
Lost Ark’s classes revolve around their Identity Skills. For the Berserker, these are the Fury meter and Burst Mode. Fury is a secondary resource that builds up as you battle enemies. Once the meter is full, you can activate Burst Mode. In Burst Mode, the Berserker gains sizeable boosts to movement speed, attack speed, damage, and critical damage. He also gains access to the Bloody Rush skill, which deals monstrous damage in a large area, great for nuking monster packs or bosses. Once activated, Burst Mode slowly drains your Fury meter until it is empty, at which point you will enter an “exhaustion” cooldown period. You cannot gain Fury again until exhaustion ends.
The Berserker’s goal is to live in Burst Mode as much as possible, maximizing the damage of his powerful attacks. When Burst Mode is active, Berserker is one of the deadliest DPS classes in the game. You can stack the Specialization stat on your gear to increase Fury gain and get back into Burst faster. Plus, your Engravings create more opportunities to use your Burst. More on those later.
Best Lost Ark Berserker build: leveling and skills for PvE and PvP
Berserker is one of the best classes in the game at quickly demolishing groups of monsters. That makes leveling a comfortable process, as most of the main story involves dealing with groups of trash mobs. You will want to spend the bulk of your skills points powering up your hardest-hitting AoE attacks to help with this.
You will earn skill points each time you level up, as well as from Skill Potions earned via later quests. Raising a skill to higher levels requires progressively more skill points, so you typically want to max out only your most important skills. The rest you’ll invest in just enough to hit one or two Tripod breakpoints. Tripods are bonuses unlocked at skill levels 4, 7, and 10, and will augment the power of the skill. Progress towards the Tripod setup below as you move through the story, and you will be ready for endgame at level 50.
Best Berserker PvE skills
| Skills | Tripod 1 | Tripod 2 | Tripod 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish Strike | Tenacity | Weak Point Detection | Lights Out |
| Tempest Slash | Quick Prep | Weak Point Detection | Driving Hit |
| Hell Blade | Training Results | Melt | Earth Flip |
| Red Dust | Quick Prep | Vital Point Hit | Red Wave |
| Strike Wave | Quick Prep | Cerberus | Blaze Wave |
| Diving Slash | Excellent Mobility | ||
| Shoulder Charge | Excellent Mobility | ||
| Whirlwind | Sustain Enhancement |
Best Berserker PvP skills
| Skills | Tripod 1 | Tripod 2 | Tripod 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finish Strike | Tenacity | Finishing Blow | Lights Out |
| Mountain Crash | Enhance | Numbing Effect | Earth Impact |
| Shoulder Charge | Excellent Mobility | Chain Charge | Earthquake Effect |
| Tempest Slash | Nimble Movement | Enhanced Strike | Driving Hit |
| Wind Blade | Quick Prep | Enhanced Strike | Windswift |
| Sword Storm | Nimble Movement | Tenacity | Earthquake Wave |
| Red Dust | Nimble Movement | Blood Slash | Red Wave |
| Diving Slash | Excellent Mobility |
In Arena PvP, every player receives a normalized pool of skill points to work with, so you will be able to max out more skills right off the bat. Berserker's long cooldowns mean you have to be very deliberate. If you commit to a fight and don't finish the opponent, you're in trouble. Thankfully, the enormous damage of skills like Finish Strike makes it easy to drop foes once you get on top of them.
Best Lost Ark Berserker build: Engravings
Once you’ve reached level 50, you can start taking advantage of Engravings. These endgame gear bonuses provide powerful buffs to your character. Each class also has two class Engravings, which alter the function of your class. For Berserker, these are Berserker's Technique and Mayhem. Each augments your Burst Mode in powerful new ways.
- Berserker’s Technique removes the exhaustion debuff after Burst Mode ends, allowing you to immediately start generating Fury again. It also grants an extra 20% movement speed, 20% attack speed, and 30% crit rate while in Burst Mode.
- Mayhem completely removes the Fury gauge, allowing you to toggle Burst Mode on and off at will. However, this comes at a significant cost. While in Mayhem Burst Mode, Berserkers are capped at 25% of their maximum life, and only gain 25% of any incoming shields from support classes. Mayhem also has lower stat bonuses, gaining 15% movement speed, 15% attack speed, and no extra crit rate.
New players should probably focus on Berserker’s Technique first. Mayhem’s 100% Burst Mode uptime is extremely powerful, but sitting at 25% health at all times is obviously quite dangerous. Once you’ve gotten a better grasp of endgame combat, give Mayhem a shot.
Unsurprisingly, Berserker also wants more damage from generic Engravings. These are activated using Engraving points on accessories, like rings, necklaces, and earrings. Every 5 points unlock one level of an Engraving, up to a max level of 3. You have some flexibility here, but some strong options for Berserker are:
- Master of Ambush increases Back Attack damage by up to 25%. You want to be hitting bosses in the back most of the time anyway, so this is a generically strong option.
- Cursed Doll boosts your damage in exchange for a healing penalty. On Mayhem Berserker this obviously has less impact, as you can’t heal much to begin with. It is worth considering on Berserker’s Technique too though.
- Keen Blunt Weapon boosts your critical damage but gives you a chance to deal -20% damage. If you have a high crit rate either from gear or from Berserker’s Technique though, you will net more damage overall.
- Grudge increases your damage by up to 20% but increases incoming damage by the same amount. This fits in thematically with Berserker’s aggressive playstyle and will provide a significant damage increase. Just be aware that combining this with Cursed Doll will turn you into a real glass cannon.
Best Lost Ark Berserker build: Combat Stats and accessories
In addition to Engravings, accessory items in Lost Ark (necklaces, earrings, and rings) are your source for Combat Stats. These substats can have a major effect on your character, and it is important to target gear with the right stats for your build. For Berserker, this is pretty straightforward. While leveling, equip the higher Specialization accessories you can find to build up your Fury gauge and spend more time in Burst Mode.
In the endgame, you should base your Combat Stats off of the class Engraving you are using. If you are using Berserker’s Technique, get as much Specialization as you can to rebuild Fury as fast as possible. If you are playing Mayhem, stack up Crit to increase your critical strike rate and damage. Look for accessories that have both your target Engraving and Combat Stat in Abyssal Dungeons or on the Auction House.
Best Lost Ark Berserker build: Awakening skills
Awakening skills are another endgame option. You will unlock these by following along with Beatrice’s post-level-50 questlines. They are extremely powerful abilities that tend to have lengthy cooldowns. Each class has two but can only equip one at a time. Berserker’s choice is fairly straightforward based on your class Engraving.
- Chains of Vengeance pulls foes in then explodes for massive damage. It also generates a lot of Fury, making it the go-to for Berseker’s Technique users.
- Berserk Fury charges up to unleash a colossal blow. It gains damage and range as it charges, peaking at a sweet spot near the end of the meter. Berserk Fury deals more damage than Chains of Vengeance but generates less Fury, despite the name. That makes it the frontrunner for Mayhem builds.
That’s everything you need to get rolling in Lost Ark’s endgame with the Berserker! If you’re in a rush to hit level 50, our guide to leveling fast in Lost Ark can help. Of course, if you’ve already started rolling up alts, our guide to Knowledge Transfers can help smooth the process.