Guild Wars 2

So, this is probably going to sound like something of a simplistic question, but…Does anyone have any tips for staying alive in berserker mode? I’ve found myself in something of a quandary.

After looking at many different sites, forums, etc, I’ve managed to find what seems to be an excellent damage build for berserker. http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83915-axemace-dps-build-for-dungeons-and-fractals-101513/

Now, I don’t have full ascended gear and scholar runes and such, but that doesn’t really play into my dilemma, which is this—

How in the kitten do zerker warriors manage to stay ALIVE?! I mean, cripes. I’ve done dozens of dungeons (mostly as a bunker shout tank) and while I can appreciate that being a pure dps glass cannon has intricacies associated with it that I may need to learn through playing, I still don’t understand how most zerker warriors can live long enough to get through a boss fight without getting downed, much less make use of scholar runes or stacking sigil bonuses.

Is it group composition? Skills? I use healing surge, signet of precision, the precision/crit damage banner, and for great justice. I find that conditions are frequently what do me in, but I’ve found that switching to mending only makes my survivability worse.

Now, I usually do pugs, so what occurs to me is that glass warrior builds only really WORK in dedicated groups that have water eles/guardians/etc to help strip off conditions and keep them healthy. Am I correct in assuming this?

If I’m not, could somebody experienced with this build perhaps give me some tips, aside from “L2P noob”, etc? Because while I acknowledge that there’s an experience factor, I’ve done plenty of dungeons, fractals, and the like. I regularly use my dodge button, and I avoid the red circles. But time and time again, I just can’t seem to keep myself alive. And so I turn to you, my warrior comrades, to give me some wisdom! It’d be greatly appreciated!

I run a sword/horn banners support warrior. The horn gives tons of group condition clears, so I can run a fairly aggressive armor load, but not pure Berserker.

My experience running alongside that breed of warrior, is that the more you gear to berserker, the more completely flawless your dodge skills have to be. And the more they benefit from one good support character somewhere in the party to look out for them on the rare occasions they do goof. “Support” not always meaning heals. Group condition clears can be the difference between a trivial boss fight and teeth-gnashing chain-wipes.

If you are the pointy end of the spear, know which classes can clear for you and how you need to behave to gain that benefit. Take a moment to get into a healing spring or cleansing flames if one is offered, even if the placement isn’t ideal. Likewise keep an eye for opportunities to complete combos that will heal or cleanse and know intimately which of your weapon skills can close those loops. When a Guardian drops a wall of reflection on an all melee boss’ toes, he’s not an idiot, he’s trying to give you a field to chain off of – circle to the appropriate side and USE IT. For me, it was recognizing that horn 5 isn’t just a good AoE debuff, it’s a 100% blast finisher that should be strategically brought to bear in different types of fields for different jobs (water field heals, fire field might stacks, etc.).

If conditions are truly your bane, you might look into a Sigil of Purification (or the more powerful but vastly more expensive Sigil of Generosity). It’ll let you stay on task (crush your enemy!) while periodically taking those conditions off. It’s not on the same level as a controlled clear, but it will reduce the pressure you’re experiencing.

Besides the above opinion, bear in mind that in man occasions, the more Berserker’s geared characters in a group, the easier content can be, because they kill so much faster, but it is a very high risk/high reward playstyle which may not be for you.

I see the appeal of Berserker’s, but honestly don’t like it too much myself. Kills fast, but it feels really ridiculous (to me-I am not calling “ridiculous” anyone in this forum, nor do I disrespect anyone for using whatever gear they wish) to be a squishy Warrior just to kill things as fast and efficiently as possible. My female Charr Warrior is big, strong, and healthy-she won’t fall to a few zombie scratches.

In short, Berserker’s play better together with other Berserker’s, and perhaps with another Berserker’s Profession able to provide boons or other party benefits (group condition removal, more group precision or power, Aegis, reflects, etc.) Do not feel bad if the playstyle seems alien to you, and especially, don’t feel you are a “baddie” because it’s easy to die with the gear, because IT IS. As you said, you are experienced, know how to play, and know how and when to dodge. You’ll die less with more experience, but IMO, things will be much more easier the more Berseker’s players you have in your group (which is NOT to say that you should blame non-“zerk” players when you are downed, as they also have the right to play with whatever they want unless previously agreed upon before making the group.)

Don’t care about what other players think is the right way to play GW2 on Dungeons or anywhere else-care more about having fun your way, because after all it is you who are playing the game, not anyone else for you.

No ill-judgment on any player’s gear choice intended, however.

Kiyo.2673:

How in the kitten do zerker warriors manage to stay ALIVE?! I mean, cripes. I’ve done dozens of dungeons (mostly as a bunker shout tank) and while I can appreciate that being a pure dps glass cannon has intricacies associated with it that I may need to learn through playing, I still don’t understand how most zerker warriors can live long enough to get through a boss fight without getting downed, much less make use of scholar runes or stacking sigil bonuses.

When you run the dungeons and you play a tanky character, you can eat attacks. That means you are never forced to learn the boss animations and timings. On the other hand when you play a berserker build, you cannot eat boss attacks so you must learn the animations and timings in order to dodge.

In short, now you have to actually learn the dungeon encounters and practice damage mitigation.

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

Kiyo.2673:

How in the kitten do zerker warriors manage to stay ALIVE?! I mean, cripes. I’ve done dozens of dungeons (mostly as a bunker shout tank) and while I can appreciate that being a pure dps glass cannon has intricacies associated with it that I may need to learn through playing, I still don’t understand how most zerker warriors can live long enough to get through a boss fight without getting downed, much less make use of scholar runes or stacking sigil bonuses.

When you run the dungeons and you play a tanky character, you can eat attacks. That means you are never forced to learn the boss animations and timings. On the other hand when you play a berserker build, you cannot eat boss attacks so you must learn the animations and timings in order to dodge.

In short, now you have to actually learn the dungeon encounters and practice damage mitigation.

dont be discouraged at first. it takes time and effort. I suggest the OP heal sig because it allows your scholar runes to almost always be active and you never have to break off to heal. Never go in first and always try to stand behind where the boss/group of mobs are unless you have a more organized group (standing behind means they wont cleave you by accident)

When you run the dungeons and you play a tanky character, you can eat attacks. That means you are never forced to learn the boss animations and timings. On the other hand when you play a berserker build, you cannot eat boss attacks so you must learn the animations and timings in order to dodge.
In short, now you have to actually learn the dungeon encounters and practice damage mitigation.

Aha! I think you’re the person that actually made that build, if I’m not mistaken? Well, I appreciate the feedback, from everyone. I guess there are some difficulties you just don’t appreciate until one good hit can down you! XD Welp, time for practice practice practice…

I wouldn’t run off and do full serker’s yet unless you have a group you run with often that is patient. I would go with a more inbetween spec to get the hang of it. I find what annoys me the most about full serker warriors or full glass anything is that if they die, it’s never their fault but the group, because the group should’ve played their style. To a point I do agree, that groups should do automatic things like gorup rez the downed guy instead of tunnel vision the DPS.

I am in transition of a more serker build, but usually only with a group I am well attuned with, I might do full serker every now and then for pugs. I don’t Pve as often so, I had to take time to learn all the encounters, and how to deal with it when a group doesn’t play the same way as the others.

personally im using this set up
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjkO5uNPKPMxBEUBN084HAiiQ9YOuj2A-jQyAYrARQgoMAJvioxWPLiGriBTVCoPXUt7oIa1SBMqyI-e

notice it doesn’t use divinty or scolar runes, or full ascendant trinkets…but it still manages to have over 100% crt dmg, and over 3800atk points (when reaching 25power weapon stacks,and food)

it also has 22k hp and 2600 armor that is great considering you’re using a dps build.

the back draw about it is has a base of about 30 crit chance ,but you will be having fury up most of the time which results in 50% crit chance.

personally i think trading a little bit less crit chance for considerably more armor and health is a nice trade off.

also, having the trait that lets you rally with a 100% chance after you bring your self back from downed state with vengeance is just great

Kiyo.2673:

When you run the dungeons and you play a tanky character, you can eat attacks. That means you are never forced to learn the boss animations and timings. On the other hand when you play a berserker build, you cannot eat boss attacks so you must learn the animations and timings in order to dodge.
In short, now you have to actually learn the dungeon encounters and practice damage mitigation.

Aha! I think you’re the person that actually made that build, if I’m not mistaken? Well, I appreciate the feedback, from everyone. I guess there are some difficulties you just don’t appreciate until one good hit can down you! XD Welp, time for practice practice practice…

Yep, practice makes perfect. Most bosses have weak auto attacks and heavy hitting slow wind up attacks. You just memorize the animations for the big shots and you’re 90% of the way there.

I know this post is old. I am only replying to help others who are still dealing with this issue.

I started out as a shout/heal warrior and also had a hard time transitioning to a zerk build. One thing I notice is that the meta zerk warrior build and pugging don’t mix. You are right, conditions are the bane of a zerk warriors existence.

You can dodge the bosses hard hitting attacks but you can’t dodge all the attack. You can dodge some but you are going to get hit with conditions eventually . You can’t avoid them all. In pugs, you cannot rely on others to remove confit ions for you… because it’s a pug. The only thing you can count on is your traits, skills, and hope the battle ends fast enough for you to regeneration hp back.

I always run pug and have yet to make the meta zero build work for me… in bad pug groups. I am running 65300 with the permanent swiftness trait. My only condition remover is shake it off. The perma swiftness help with avoiding attacks and the adrenaline heal help counteract condition dmg. Camping gs allows me pay less attention on my rotation and more on what the boss is doing. With this build, I am able to rush head first in to battle and “dance” with boss while staying alive in pugs 99% of the time. Yes, my dps is lower than the meta build. But I can stand toe to toe with the boss longer and carry a bad pug with my dps.

>Zerker is best with zerker gear groups. Pugs cause your death beacause when things live longer, its dealing out dmg longer=higher chances of death.
>As a war, Do Not fear death. My war has 3,800 deathsp from yolo play. If you died trying, you are trying enough.

1) know the mechanics: this is your keys to no defense stats. Knowing what the enemiesdo is valuable asset to zerkers.
2)Dont ever stand still unless stacking.
3)Remember that GS spin skill has evade in it, AoE? Spin out of it, immobilized? spin in place

>Pugs can get you killed from a variety of factors like CC activated defiance from a boss melts zerker payers.
>Fractal bosses are example of A.I. that targets people whom are down with spressed fire towards them. A zerker reviver is risky more that stacking itself.

Warriors are an honor class, leading the way, all the way, death before dishonor!

Run zerker stance and cleansing ire, time your burst skill. really this is the only option if you run gs/lb zerker build.

The finesse is knowing when to get in there and when to get out . Once you’ve learned the intrigacies of timing and evasion, then perhaps your zerk will survive.

Stop using training wheels like shoutheals and skill yourself up.