Everything You Need To Start Playing Power Berserker in World vs. World (Updated for April 16th)

-- Power Berserker is one of the most effective, straightforward damage professions in the current meta, pulverizing enemy groups with Arc Divider spikes and stomping downs with Battle Standard. With its high survivability and utility, it's an ideal profession for learning the fundamentals of playing damage professions in World vs. World groups. In this guide, I'll cover the essentials of what you need to play Power Berserker for your first squad, discussing gearing and trait choices, basic rotations and skill combos, and your role in a larger squad. The goal of these guides is to give you the knowledge and skill to play a profession effectively, and discover the finer points and advanced techniques later on.
-- Build Link: gw2skills.net/editor/?PKgAENlR...
Shoutout to Pigeon, Ruthless, Aech, Yumesaki, and other members of the community who contributed feedback and advice to portions of this video.
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twitch.tv/sheffplaysgames
VoDs @ / @sheffplaysgamesvods
Discord @ / discord
-- Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:24 Squad Role and Profession Mechanic
01:11 Rotation Example
01:56 Weapons and Gearing
04:01 Utility Skills
04:55 Strength Traits
05:44 Discipline Traits
06:31 Berserker Traits
07:08 Precombat Rotation and Setup
08:37 Berserk Rotation
10:04 When To Use Blood Reckoning
11:20 Comping For Berserker
12:02 Outro

[@sheffplaysgames]

The April 16th balance patch changed the way that Scorched Earth's target cap works -- it now only hits three people per square, down from five. Build, rotation, everything is still fine as-is, just note that the tooltips in the video are not correct.

[@TheExtended]

WOW WOW WOW your "Everything You Need To Start Playing" videos are absolutely top their. Thank you and please keep it going.

[@sheffplaysgames]

The plan is to replace the previous format of build guides on the channel with these, so I will. Over time, old stuff will all get phased out, and then I'll just keep these updated with changes in the meta.

[@SubsSociety]

I very good guide. Thanks. Would love to see one for Dragonhunter too.

[@sheffplaysgames]

It's coming, now that DH is a little more favored in the meta. :)

[@NotBIast]

Great video!

[@quarktasche4997]

really nice guide of perfect length ;) I've been playing Support in GW2 forever and wanna expand my arsenal, looking for the right damage profession; your channel seems to be just what I needed -> subbed

[@marinamorton]

Great guide ty :)

[@DanilloMagalhaes]

it's all about timing and positioning. i started playing burstzerker when only LordHt was showcasing it around, arc divider had 3 hits and scorched earth didn't do power dmg. i used to entry with axe/axe to build up adrenaline and start the bomb then swap zerk arcdivider twice. it was always a nasty bomb. or pump rage signet directly to arc divider for quick hits. then i added the bow and felt odd. althought scorched earth makes you feel good with arcdps numbers, good dmg doesn't mean fights won. the best type of dmg in wvw is the dmg that generates downs. if you are fighting constantly on chokes, lacks support and strips on your squad and can't safely do melee engages, bow is definetly a great tool. if your commander is more melee and brawl oriented, i'd go with 2 melee weapons. either hammer or now u can go dagger/axe. also if ur tag doesn't require your battle standart to finish downs or as a res mechanism, switch to elite signet, it will passively give u more adrenaline = more primal burst = more dmg

[@sheffplaysgames]

If you look at some of this footage very, very closely, you'll see there's some old-style Arc Divider clips in there. :) I think Longbow is still the safest option for getting the basics down. It rewards timing and positioning. But Hammer/GS, or GS/Dagger+Axe, can outperform this build, depending on how your commander plays. Battle Standard, on the other hand, I think is always going to be your best elite. Even if your tag doesn't require it, I think you always use it, because of how quickly it can change a fight.

[@DanilloMagalhaes]

@@sheffplaysgames i 100% agree with all that. but stillon the standart, i feel like its not as big as it once was. scrapper got the axe for the past 1-2 years, scourges and spb got mostly the better out of chronos for strips, so classes with ress mechanics like function gyros, ilusion of life and battle standart haven't been used as much, that paired with the fact that squads are mostly running a flagship style with lots of range and back and forth to a straight nonstop push. then there's a lot of support and positioning as brawling and ressing mechanics has not beeing like an everyfight thing. But, if you feel like during a run u missed a few saves, or finishes u can easily switch that up. but i'd consider trying the signet out, record urself and check how many primal burst regulaly u were able to pump with elite signet. if u feel its not worth it, then stick with standart.

[@skynet8574]

I keep wondering about staff instead of long sword. I know the dps drops a bit but the what it offers is pretty good. I get its a zerk dps build

[@sheffplaysgames]

IMO, if Staff has a home, it's going to be on Spellbreaker. Berserker's most potent ability is using Arc Divider while in Berserker to generate downs with overwhelming spike damage, which Staff can't really contribute to. If you really wanted to run Staff, I think you'd use it over Longbow, not Greatsword.

[@notor1ousguhmz]

Nice guide! I think longbow + dagger/axe will become more meta too. My guild use that instead of GS!

[@sheffplaysgames]

I think so, especially as boon removal becomes harder and harder to find. Greatsword/Hammer is also a good build, as long as you're willing to get into melee basically all the time.

[@kurnimus4316]

I wanna see more videos of guilds wiping boys, but everyone just posts blob content. This looks like you got 30-35 on you verse 20 boys. You guys fight them in evens at all? Either or, nice video.

[@sheffplaysgames]

In general, I don't do strict evens. Sitting people isn't fun, and telling allies on your same server that they can't play is also not fun. For the fights with [boys] we had 22, Tyrion had about 6 with [BOMB], and Dag was around 25, so he was down numbers on us slightly. That's true. But it's also an issue of, this isn't a montage video, it's a guide. [boys] played VERY well the night I was doing footage collection, and won most fights regardless. But if I'm trying to show how to play Berserker, the fights where they Veil and then leap onto us, and five people in our squad explode on impact, those aren't useful fights to look at how to play Berserker well. I like to bookend my videos with fights where I die early, or play poorly, to remind people that it's not just [KnT], or [HATE], or whoever I'm playing with stomping people into the ground. And you learn a lot more from reviewing fights you lose, than fights you win. But I've found that, for showing other people how to play a profession well, fights that you win are more useful.