Torchlight 2 – Leveling with Berserker in Elite mode – Part 1

I have to say that I’m obsessed with Berserker class in Torchlight 2. I played all the four classes in Elite mode and the most painful one is Berserker. It’s extremely hard. Fuck it.

What is Berserker?

Berserker class is melee DPS class in Torchlight 2. Normally the weapon choice is dual wielding one hand weapon (sword, axe, claw, mace) to maximize the damage. Also wielding two weapons of the same type will give the chance to perform “execution” action which is dealing damage using both weapons.

What’s the problem?

Berserker is easy to play in Veteran and below difficult mode. However, things are really different in Elite mode in the early game. Here’s some reasons:

1. Monsters are too powerful. Monsters in Elite mode have greater damage and armors so it’s hard to kill them, especially the bigger ones or the ones with shields or both.
   • In the early game, Berserker damage is too small. It’s very hard to kill one monster. Also Torchlight has a unique type of attack named Fumble. A Fumble strike is a negative critical strike which will cause -49% of normal damage. And, the chance to strike a fumble one is… 21%. Fuck.
   • Berserker is DPS class so it’s very easy to die. In Frosted Hills, the 2nd large map in the game, monsters can nearly oneshot a Berserker if he’s not careful enough. Believe it or not, I died a lot in that map in the past.
2. Monsters often come in a group of 5 to some dozens.
   • Well, Berserker is late game class. In the early game, Berserker does not have good aoe skills to clear the map. Just let some mobs near you and you die. Easy.
   • Berserker is a melee class. If we don’t get close the monsters, we cannot kill them. If we get close to them, they kill us. Fuck.

What’s the solution?

After struggling a lot and getting a Berserker to level 100 in Elite mode, I have been playing this class again. However, I tried to analyze what’s the problem with this class.

Weapon choices

Think out of the box, this class does not have to be played with dual one-hand melee weapons. Using 2hand weapon will increase the damage and the slash range will hit more monsters in a swing. However, in Elite mode, most the builds should have shield in offhand to increase the chance of surviving. Therefore, using 2hand weapon is not reliable enough unless we have many good items.

What about range weapons?

• Guns, Wands: range is too short. Also the fumble chance is high so… it’s hard.
• Bow and Crossbow: range is good but hit only one. The knockback from Bow is not good enough unless we can find a +Knockback gem and fast speed bow.
• Shotgun: good aoe, good knockback, short range but it’s good enough.
• Cannon: good aoe, good knockback, 35% stun in 2 seconds, short range. The only problem is we need to invest the points to Vitality.

After analyzing, I chose to start with Shotgun and Cannon. The result is amazing.

It’s much much much easier to clearing monsters. The aoe from cannon and shotgun works extremely great with Berserker full charge 100% crit chance. Also, the charge bar is filled much faster than the dual one hand weapon. It’s great.

That’s it for this part. In the next one, I will talk more about the skills and strategies.