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Berserker Guide Contents

The main role a berserker will play is the main tank.  Berserkers happen to make fabulous MT, and are arguably the best in game.  Personally, they would be one of my first choices for tanking.

But there is more to tanking than your class choice.  To be an effective tank, you need to be aggressive, decisive, and very aware of your surroundings, group potential, and your own limits.  Main tanks usually end up being the group leader.  They typically decide what to kill and when, and as such, group members will depend on you to know what you are doing, and to keep them safe.  A tank that doesn't know what he/she is doing, can bring the whole group down fast.  

3.1 Tanking 101

Okay.  So you've chosen to play a berserker, so you have the basics to be a awesome tank.  The rest is knowledge and skill.  

Leadership

Tanks tend to be the leader in battle.  You are the first one in, the aggressor, and the protector.  Great tanks have one thing in common, and that is the ability to make quick decisions and logical choices.  If you go running into a dungeon, whacking away at everything that comes into your path indiscriminately, your group will be quickly headed to a full group wipe.  Be wise and choose carefully.  Don't lead your group somewhere that is far above their skill level, and if you don't know the skill of your group?  Test it out and stay on the side of caution.  Because while killing mobs that seem too easy may feel like a waste of time, over estimating your groups  potential and wiping terribly, is a bigger waste of time and just causes your group to lose faith in you.  No one likes dieing.

Pulling

Pulling mobs is an art form.  One that I still haven't mastered, but I'm getting there.  My preference has always been to plant my group somewhere safe, and bring the mobs to them.  This gives me a certain amount of control over my surroundings.  It's not always possible though..  Inside a dungeon, there aren't always safe spots to be.  But you definitely are going to want to clear out any mobs that path (mobs that do not have a static location, that roam an area) so that you don't have to deal with them running into your group later while you are in the middle of fighting something else.  After that, simply remember where you are and where you have been and keep an eye on re-pops.  In dungeons, you are probably going to want to keep moving along.  If you do plan on camping an area, keep your group out of traffic and spawn locations.

Another pain with pulling is grabbing more mobs than you intend to.  Those darned friendly mobs that just love to bring their pals to the party, they have killed me and my groups more often than I could count.  A little trick that I have learned in my time as a main tank, is to proximity aggro mobs that are within friendly aggro range with their friends.  If I taunt one, I'm sure to get the other, but if I slowly scoot up into aggro range of the one closest to me, more often than not, I can get the attention of just my target.  Then I simply back up to my group and taunt away once it's safely away from other mobs.  It's a nifty little trick for sure.

Aggro Control

The main job of the main tank is to take and keep aggro off of all of group members.  Berserkers have a nice range of different hate building combat arts at their disposal, both single target taunts, and full encounter taunts.  These should be used, and used frequently.  Just because you start out with aggro, doesn't mean you will keep it, so you have to keep using those taunts and building hate.  Otherwise that blast happy wizard in the back is sure to grab the attention of whatever you are fighting, and those mages go down FAST.  If you have a group member that is pulling hate away from you quicker then you can build it, there is nothing wrong with asking them to take it easy for the first little bit of the encounter while you establish yourself.  Be careful of those priests too.  If one tosses up a ward right off, they will likely get beaten a little until you can grab back aggro.

Single target encounters are cake to keep aggro on.  Generally just taunting at regular intervals is enough to keep the hate towards you.  It gets a little bit trickier with multiple target encounters.  You will have something targeted, and everyone will be assisting you, but then there will be someone putting out AoEs that may nab the attention of another mob in the encounter.  The best way to combat this is to switch targets and spread the love.  Cycle through all the targets in the encounter, and taunt each one of them singly, along with using your full encounter taunts.  This will go a long way in keeping all mobs on you, and off of that silly AoE happy backup tank Shadow Knight that thinks he can tank, but really can't.

So those are the basics of main tanking.  First and foremost, you want to have fun.  And having fun happens easier if everyone knows their job, and does their best to do it properly.  Good main tanks are remembered and sought after.  Berserkers most definitely have the ability to be great tanks, the rest is up to you to know your class and learn your skills!

3.2 - Combat Abilities Progression

This gives you a break down of your combat arts, what they do, and when they are upgraded.  It's a good format to see what line of skills you may wish to upgrade, and which are of less use to you.

Self Buffs & Stances

Group Buffs

Taunts & Taunt-Attack Abilities

Attack Abilities

Attacks Plus Debuffs / DoTs / AoEs

Protection Abilities

Berserks

Advice?  Suggestions?  I'm always looking to add more useful information to this guide.  If you are a berserker, and would like to add tips, tricks, or helpful advice, please drop me a note at Savanja@TenTonHammer.com!