Torchlight 2 Berserker Build Guide

Are you working yourself into a bestial rage trying to decide on a build for your Torchlight 2 berserker?

Are you working yourself into a bestial rage trying to decide on a build for your Torchlight 2 berserker? We have just the thing for that! Well, actually, it will probably just make you angrier. But when you're a berserker, that's generally a good thing. Best if used in conjunction with our Torchlight 2 Class Guide, which will be updated with new builds as we release them.

A note on respecs

By default, Torchlight 2 only allows you to respec your last three skill points (at a steep cost.) Thus, you may already be so far in that these builds are impossible to use. Luckily, if you want the freedom to redistribute all of your skill points at any time, the game supports it. You'll just have to follow a few steps. NOTE: This will give your character a visible cheater flag beside your name in multiplayer, just like editing the stats file does. Some people have a problem with that. Others don't. Just a fair warning.

Find your Torchlight 2 save folder, usually under Documents/My Games/Runic Games/Torchlight 2/save. Open settings.txt, and find the line that says "CONSOLE :0", which should be third from the top. Change it to "CONSOLE :1". Save the text file, load up a character, and hit INSERT to bring up the console. Type "ITEM RespecPotion". It will appear at your feet. Quaff away to refund all spent skill points. This also has the benefit of letting you choose your starting attack skill on a new character, instead of having to use the default one. It's also worth noting that, as far as we can tell, only characters that actually use the spawn item command will be cheater flagged. Just enabling the console shouldn't mess up your whole account.

Got it? Good.

All of the following builds have been tested on Veteran difficulty.

Berserker Build: The Dire Wolf

Who needs a right mouse button? This build will start you off buffing your passives for crit, charge, and lifesteal while relying mostly on auto-attacks for damage. Fights with lots of enemies will be tough until your mid- to late 20s, when you'll start picking up better area attacks and multi-hit effects.

Gear Choice

Dual fist weapons are where it's at. Keep the focus on grievous single-target damage, and build charge so you can hit Frenzy and turn into a human lawnmower as fast as possible. Attack speed, bonus Dual Wield damage, and lightning damage are all excellent with this build, in addition to pure armor and resistance due its fragility.

Stat Points

Strength and Dexterity should always be primary. Put at least two of your five points at each level up into each of them, for damage and crits. Your remaining point can rotate between your "dump" stats. Vitality will need to get some love if you don't want to be dropping a fortune on revives. I would try not to let it fall too far below two thirds of your total level. Focus is also useful in that it increases your execute chance while dual wielding. If you're dying a lot, put your fifth point into Vitality. If it's not an issue at the moment, invest in Focus.

Once you get to the point that Strength and Dexterity are close to or over 50 (ignoring gear), you can start dropping some points from them into other things. I would still recommend putting at least one point per level into each for your entire career, though.

Levels 1-25

Initially, you want to focus almost entirely on your passives. Keep Blood Hunger and Executioner (Hunter tree) as well as Frenzy Mastery (Shadow tree) maxed. These create a great synergy of letting you Frenzy more often and longer, while granting you great lifesteal while frenzying. Even as "glass cannon" as this build is, with those passives maxed, you can usually go toe-to-toe with any boss while in Frenzy and have enough lifesteal to completely or mostly offset their damage.

If you can't put points into any of the above, put them in Stormclaw (Tundra tree) and later Wolf Strike (Hunter Tree), prioritizing the latter once Stormclaw has reached Tier 1. This will give you some multi-target damage as well as excellent mobility, which you will find yourself in desperate need of on certain bosses.

Levels 26-50

Battle Rage (Hunter tree) should become your top priority (after passives) as soon as you unlock it. If you find yourself with all three passives, Wolf Strike , Stormclaw , and Battle Rage maxed, consider going into Rampage (Hunter) and Shred Armor (Shadow). When Ravage (Hunter) unlocks at level 42, getting it to Tier 1 should become your top priority after your core three passives for its boss-shredding ability. Then, go back to having Battle Rage be your priority active skill.

Levels 51-100

Keep maxing out everything above, including the Rampage and Shred Armor passives. When you have free points, grab some Cold Steel Mastery (Tundra) for a pure DPS boost. Rage Retaliation (Tundra) can also be useful. If you want more active buttons to press, you can go the Raze (Hunter) route, doing huge damage while you're in Frenzy (but it doesn't build charge, so should only be used in Frenzy), or Rupture (Hunter) for more AoE damage. Beyond all that, it's mostly up to you. Enjoy the bloodbath.