Now that RoK is here and has been fleshed out a bit, it's time for the guide, fun fun fun!!

This guide will not include all of the basics covered in the previous guide but will be similar, and will focus on the Zerker in RoK bringing along some of the good info over from the previous guide as well. As before this information is compiled from many sources, typically these forums, and thank you all for your input!

Let's get to it!

PRE-ROK Guide (Levels 1-70) CLICK HERE

Zerker Worldwide Chat Channel: Antonia_Bayle.swberserker

Lets start with everyone's favorite! Expanded and rehashed from the previous guide.

Diminishing Returns

Diminishing Returns means that when you reach certain level of any skill, (mitigation, slashing, defense, etc...) you will start to get minimal benefits from raising its value.

Soft Cap: referred to as the Break Even Point, is not an actual cap, but the value at which you start seeing noticeably less returns from adding more points to a given stat, for example going from 5000 mitigation to 6000 at this point will provide less benefit than going from 2000 to 3000.  For stats At level 70 it was around 650-700, and at level 80 I'd imagine it would be around 800 but nothing concrete here.

Hard Cap: The definite value at which you will no longer see a benefit from adding more points to a stat.

Stat cap maximum: [ 15 * level + 20 ] = 1220 at level 80.

Mitigation Hard Cap: [ Level * 150 ] = 12000 at level 80 or 75%. The break-even point was set at 3675 for level 70 players, at level 80 this works out to around 4800

Avoidance Skills (def, parry, etc.) Hard Cap: [ 6.5 * Level ]

Attack Skill Hard Cap: [ 6.5 * Level ]

Haste and DPS mod caps: Set at 200 points. These curves break even at 63, where 63 points = 63% haste. 105 is 94%. Max is 200 = 125%. You definitely don't have to worry about this until you're raiding at level 70-80, and after you have been upgraded into some of the new RoK gear, or with a well balanced group that can offer the buffs to bring you up to these values.

Notes:

• Generally speaking, 40% of the hard cap is roughly the break even point on most of the diminishing returns graphs for resists, stats, and skills.
• The mitigation cap is supposed to be 12,000 but the game reports improvements even beyond 12,000
• The 'Absorbs' is reported by mousing over the mitigation value in the Persona screen.  It is reported vs a 'white' opponent.  When your opponent is orange - say 85 - the game may use a curve based on *85 instead of *80 and values beyond caps can become significant or lower on the curve.

Values that diminish related to a Zerker.
Possibly more, but these are the key ones.

• Stats (i.e. WIS, STR, STA etc)
• DPS mod
• Haste mod
• Mitigation(including spell resistance)
• Parry/Def/and overall Avoidance

Note: Values like increased/decreased hate gain, symmetry etc don't have diminishing returns.

Reference:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=253135
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=267128

AA

With the release of RoK players are now able to achieve 70 points in each tree after level 71, granting a total of 140 AA points. A berserker should max out the Warrior tree ASAP and leave the EoF tree for something to progress later on after you are maxed out in the Warrior tree. There are a couple of minor exceptions here to that rule, see below.

Right now buckler spec is the best spec (best bang for your buck) for berserkers (and maybe even warriors in general) period. You may be able to come close in the DPS department with a 2h/DW setup, but you won't have the survivability of the buckler spec, which of course means you die, not so fun.

Guardians can spec defensively and still hold aggro because they have tools besides just DPS to hold aggro. As a berserker if you want to be able to hold aggro you're better off maximizing your DPS and that means buckler spec.

TIP: AA abilities Scale with your level

Some Recommended AA Builds (Warrior Tree)- you got those extra 20 points, but where o' where do they go?

Some of these builds will have a couple extra points left over to dump into any area you feel necassary...

Type:               STR                  AGI                  STA                  WIS                 INT  
1) Buckler          448                                       44882                                    44882
2) Buckler          448                                       4488                 44862               41   
3) Buckler-PVP      448                                       44862                41                  44862
4) Tower/DW/2H      448                                                            44882               44882
5) DW               44861                                                          44881               4585 
6) Empty                                                                                                    

Descriptions:

1. Standard buckler spec, the normal spec most zerks run. Least hassle, solid DPS, best bank for your buck.
2. A variant on the buckler spec, while losing some survivability from the STA line you gain some back by going down the WIS line, removing penalties to stances, as well as retaining Acceleration strike from the INT line.
3. Another variant of the buckler spec designed for PVP, by removing some of the points from STA & INT, this one includes Belly Smash from the WIS line.
4. A common build for Tower shield, Dual Wield, or Two-Handed spec, offering survivability from the WIS line and DPS from the INT line.
5. A risky Dual Wield spec, offering some surviveabilty from the WIS line. Requires an awesome healer to keep your health low enough to take advantage of final STR ability. (this could be used with a 2h as well)

EoF (Berserker) Tree:

With the additional 20 points we can now spread out a bit in the EoF tree and while none of the single enhancements alone are all that great, combined they can produce some excellent additions to your arsenal.

Note: Basically most every upgrade in the EoF tree is subpar and you really can't go wrong here, however most tend to shy away from the Perseverance line, as the health regen mechanic isn't all that great and the points can be spent better elsewhere.

Suggested Upgrades:

• Open Wounds Enhancement - just about as close to being a necessity as one can get, one of the class defining abilities. The upgrade here will reduce the reuse timer.
• Turmoil Enhancement - same as Open wounds.
• War Pledge Enhancement - enhancement from the EoF tree, still becomes our best single target taunt.
• Cyclones Line - is still a good choice as well. The enhanced range to AoE's has been reduced to 5m and now is not as dangerous as it once was, the increase to taunt resistibility is a nice bonus too.
• Berserk Clicky - With the addition of Adrenaline, and between Unyielding Will's death effect(Death's Door) and Juggernaught, it has given more reason to choose this ability, it is situational but can be useful at times, if you don't mind spending the extra points here. However due to hard caps the Berserk ability itself (Buff or Clicky version) does not provide the benefits to haste/dps as it once used to. As we are able to get +dps/haste much easier then we used to be able.

Warrior Achievement FAQ and Analysis (a little outdated, but still quite useful)
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...?topic_id=83897

Equipment -T8- On going- will update as new items are discovered

Notes and Tips on Equipment:

• With all the +crit gear in RoK, weapon DR is even less the be-all-end-all determinant of weapon dps. Remember (crit% X 1.09 (max - min) + max + min) / delay = crit% adjusted DR.
• + Attack Speed always stacks, but you can only benefit from one equipped item with Haste. So a 26 haste cloak and a 28 haste weapon = 28 haste. Then add all your Attack Speed mods to that.
• +CA Damage is capped at 50% of max CA damage
• Do not discount MC armors. Since the recent revamp, the Mastercrafted armor is on par with most legendary drops. At level 72 it is recommended to obtain a set unless you are fabled out from t7, or have pieces that are comparable or better.
• Search for Equipment at http://www.lootdb.com/
• Haste Items - http://ironfingers.outlands.com/haste.htm

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Shields

Bucklers

• Fabled:
  Virtues Guard - Drops in Protector's Realm
• Legendary/MC:
  Abominable Crest - VoES - \aITEM 1462488845 -1947171758 -588243257:[Abominable Crest]\/a
  Di'Zok Emblazoned Buckler - Faction Crafted
  Festering Flesh Buckler - Unrest
• Treasured:
  Treasured bucklers with half decent protection values, can drop from solo content mobs in RoK zones. Stats are below par on these types of shields.
  

Tower\Kite

• Fabled:
• Legendary:
  Arcane Greatwall - VoES - \aITEM -1552801301 -1045453294:Arcane Greatwall\/a
  Shield of the Green Dragon - Kunzar x2 - \aITEM 2052720707 -1157905432:Shield of the Green Dragon\/a
  Penitent Greatshield - \aITEM 612821526 1937758220: Penitent Greatshield\/a - Vault of Eternal Sleep - The Keeper of Dreams
• Treasured:
  Treasured towers with half decent protection values, can drop from solo content mobs in RoK zones. Stats are below par on these types of shields
  

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Weapons

• LU 42 has brought us Epic weapon quests for each class, follow the link below...
• NOTE: You must be Level 80 in order to start your epic weapon quest!

Epic Weapon Quest Timeline
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Berserker...Weapon_Timeline

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1 Handed

• Mythical:
  Dragons Temper - Mythical Epic quest reward - Upgrade from Fabled version
• Fabled:
  Dragons Temper - Fabled Epic quest reward
• Legendary/MC:
  Nathsar Shortsword - Drop in CoA
  Cartiocutter - COA
  Snake-Eye's Raptor Claw Axe -quested
  MC - any of the Long Delay MC weapons (Bastar,d sword, Kukri, Falchion, Tomahawk, War Axe, Battle Mace, Pitchatka, Leafblade, etc.)
• Treasured:
  You probably don't want to bother with a treasured weapon -  there are a couple available through questing that are kind of decent if you are in a pinch, but you really should be using something better, use your old T7 fabled/legendary or buy a MC.

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2 Handed - Ask a pally

• Fabled:
  Claymore of Judgement
  Sword of Pure Valor
  Axe of Unending War
• Legendary:
  2h Reward from Anasphalx(sp) Quest
  
• Treasured:
  

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Bow

• Fabled:
• Legendary:
  Warlord's Long Bow of Defense - Faction Merchant - Sel-Nok
• Treasured:
  Legionaire Bow -  Quest Reward - +3 parry +1 Attack Speed

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Armor

Fabled Class Raid Gear:
Fabled class gear is obtained much the same as Relic gear was obtained in KoS. A mold and a raw are required, both are dropped in RoK raid zones, then taken to the Danak Shipyard to turn in at the NPC there who will convert the mold and raw to a wearable piece of armor.

In Game Links (paste into chat):

\aITEM 1181336262 -1351303582:Berserker Barbute of Furious Execution\/a
\aITEM 172564463 1567656449:Berserker Breastplate of Furious Execution\/a
\aITEM 1136213946 360234473:Berserker Spaulders of Furious Execution\/a
\aITEM -1059949132 701434128:Berserker Gussets of Furious Execution\/a
\aITEM 726219016 2106112859:Berserker Gauntlets of Furious Execution\/a
\aITEM -225571259 462648033:Berserker Greaves of Furious Execution\/a
\aITEM 1496915256 194512154:Berserker Sabatons of Furious Execution\/a


Legendary Class (oriented) Gear:

Ravaged Onslaught Armor Set
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Ravaged_O...%28Armor_Set%29

Set Bonus:

• (3) +75 combat art damage
• (6) Applies Ravaged Onslaught
• On a successful melee attack this spell has a chance to cast Ravaged Onslaught on target of attack. Lasts for 12.0 seconds.This effect will trigger an average of 1.8 times per minute. If a melee attack is used, only the primary weapon can trigger this effect.
• Inflicts crushing damage on target
• Reduces all physical damage done to target by 50.

Drops from: 

• Barbute of Ravaged Onslaught - Guardian of Eternity, VoES / Sandstorm, MC / Blue Baron, Chelsith
• Spaulders of Ravaged Onslaught - Baron Yosig, CoA / Gear of the Ancients, MC / Keeper of Dreams, VoES
• Breastplate of Ravaged Onslaught - Drusella, MC / Majora Leviathan, Chelsith / Praetor of the Phylactery, VoES
• Guantlets of Ravaged Onslaught - Harbinger Frelgor, CoA / Xa'rgo the Cursed, Sebilis
• Gussets of Ravaged Onslaught - Arch Duke Latol, CoA / Quenn Velazul Dizok, Chardok
• Greaves of Ravaged Onslaught - Fallen Emporer Vekin, CoA / Impaler Tzilug, MC / Mucas of the Deep, Chelsith
• Sabatons of Ravaged Onslaught - Gorogon, Chardok

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Armor Pieces

Head:

• Shined Sel'Nok Helm - Quested
• Sallet of the Reet Knight
• Nak'azar Brigade Helm
  

Cloak:

• Cape of the Vikomt
• Cloak of Flames
  

Chest:

• Polished Deklium Chestplate
• Sand Etched Platemail
• Gwalnax Brigade Chestplate

Shoulders:

• Mantle of the Jarsath Tribe
• Crypt Spaulders
• Danak Crested Pauldrons - Quested

Forearms:

• Swap Glow Vampbraces - Quested
• Chitin Patterned Bracers - Quested
• Armguards of the Elite Yha-Lei Shock Troops

Hands:

• Radiant Luclin Ore Gauntlets - Quested
• Gwalnax Brigade Guantlets - Quested

Waist:

• Wurm Hide Cinch
• Baldric of the Di'Zok Warlord
• Engraved Belt of the Terrible - Quested

Legs:

• Nak'azar Brigade Leggings
• Leviathan Shell Leggings

Feet:

• Boots of the Waste Hunter - Quested

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Jewelry

Charm Slot:

• Scale of the Leviathan - Chelsith quest line
• Drolvarg Weapons Emblem - Collection Quest in KC
• Riliss Chicken Foot - Faction Crafted - Rare dropped in RoK dungeons
• T3 <NEED NAME> - quest line in BB (Sarnak Sympathizer).  Starts with Sarnak at dock

Neck:

• Unglued Alchemist Crest - Quested - VoES
• Ganak's Torque - Drop in Voes
• Torque of the Nathsar
• Sebilisian Choker

Ear:

• Sarnak Earing of Station
• Assassin's Stud - CoA
• Droag Talon Plugs - Quested
• Earring of the Wastes Hunter - Quested
  

Ring:

• Band of Thuuga - Quested
• Lost Ring of the Tides
• Reet Eye Ring
• Threaded Steel Ring - Quested

Wrist:

• Skleross Band of Glory - Quested
• Nak'azar Brigade Bracers

Continued

---

Tip: Raw health is usually better than +sta. The amount of health that STA increases varies and depends on how much STA you already have (see Diminishing Returns). As you get more, it increases your health pool less.  The raw health bonus never diminishes like that.

Some suggested adornments to benefit role types:

General (for any role):

• Head: +100 power
• Chest: +7 str +7 sta +7 agi +7wis +7 int
• Waist: +30 CA Damage / +Attack Speed
• Ranged: Increase Damage Per Second of caster by 12.0
• Rings: +100 health
• Ears: +16 int
• Neck:  Increase Damage Per Second of caster by 12.0, or +1.0% melee crit

DPS:

• Buckler: +1.0% melee crit chance
• Wrists: +30 combat art damage
• +str on any slot you can get it

OT/MT:

• Wrists: 3.0% chance to parry incoming attacks
• Buckler: +1% chance to block, or damage shield
• Shoulders: +100 health, or damage shield
• Forearms: +8 parry, or +77 mitigation
• Gloves: +16 agi
• Pants: +16 sta
• Boots: +16 sta
  

• Mithaniel Marr Offers:
• Pet buff is STR/WIS
• Valor of Marr (Blessing): Increased parry and damage proc
• Valorus Service(Miracle): ward (5000), intercept and group heal.
• Marrs barrier(Miracle): All attacks absorbed 10 times
• The Cloak of Valor is a good cloak for tanking.
• Tunare Offers:
• Pet buffs AGI/WIS.
• Earthmother's Aegis (Blessing): Reactive Heal vs. Spells, plus a Mitigation buff
• Tunare's Lifeshield (Miracle): Mirrors spells and wards vs. physical damage
• Other various healing abilities to add to your tank set.
• The Ivory Shroud of Tunare is useless for a zerk.

Evil Deities

• Rallos Zek Offers:
• Pet buffs STR
• Battlerage (Blessing): +10% Melee Crit, +15 DPS
• Tactical Formation (Blessing): Hate gain +10%, AE group hate gain -5%, -defense of caster. AE group +defense
• Rallos' Devastartion (Miracle): Massive AOE divine nuke
• The War Mantle of Rallos Zek is great for zerks.

Neutral Deities

• The Tribunal Offers:
  • Pet gives WIS
  • Blessing - Unquestioned Oath - Increases all stats by 78 
  • Blessing - Virtue of the Six - Improves reuse of all combat arts by 10% & casting time by 12.5%
  • Blessing - Inquiry - Increases Hate gain by 39%, When you are damage has a 10% chance to cast Inquiry (increase threat to targets in AoE by 295) 
  • Blessing - Law and Order - Increases in combat health regen by 499, increases mitigation by 913 
  • Blessing - Scales of Justice - 20% of all damage received is converted into health
  • Miracle - Perjury - (1 min duration) - 30% of all damage received is done to power instead of health 
  • Miracle - Vigilante Justice - (30 sec duration) - Increase DPS by 40, on every successful melee attack inflicts 208 divine dmg 
  • Miracle -Word of the Magistrate - (30 sec duration) - Increase hate gain by 100%, Increase all resists by 3200, when you are damaged with melee, inflicts 208 divine dmg 
  • Miracle - Hammer of Justice - (Up to 1 min duration) - Summons limited hammer pet 
  • Miracle - Final Judgement - Inflicts magic dmg on target equal to 50% of caster's total health, cannot exceed 50% of target's max health, applies immunity to this for 30 sec, must be hated by your target
  • Cloak has chance to Stun target.

• Solusek-Ro Offers:
• Pet buffs INT
• Incinerate (Miracle): Single target massive heat damage on target if it is under 50% HP
• Blessing of Solusek (Blessing): Increases heat mitigation, and if you take heat damage, heals you
• Spear of the Sun (Miracle): Summons a pet that reduces the casting time, recast time, and power cost of heat-based spells.
• The Cloak of the Burning Prince is useless for a zerk. (+65 spell dmg)
• Brell Serilis Offers:
• Pet buffs STA/WIS
• Stature of Serilis (Blessing): buff against physical, heat and cold (1050) - shrinks caster 50%
• Protection of Brell (Miracle): A physical mitigation Buff/Group Heal for 30%
• Forgehammer (Miracle): Single target stun w/ divine damage
• Rift from Below (Miracle): An AE damage/AE DOT/ Knockback Miracle.
• The Cloak of the Underfoot may be useful in some situations\styles.

Tips:

• The newest neutral diety, The Tribunal, appears to be the best "tanking" deity for warrior tanks, however the pet buffs WIS.
• If you're an OT, Rallos Devastation is an awesome, very quick casting AE that is almost guaranteed to get you snap agro.
• Best cloak all around is Zek.
• Best defensive tanking deity is Tunare (see lifeshield and aegis)
• Best agro grabber would be debatable, but Sol-Ro for single target, and Zek for AoE.
• Mithanial Marr is the most popular choice for good aligned tanks, and the Marr cloak isn't bad for a MT.
• Tunare has a miracle that blocks 10 hits with a cast time of 0.5 seconds, and also reflects back 50% of the damage.
• You can stop worshipping a deity and still retain the cloak.
• It really all depends on what you do with your character, whether you group tank, DPS, raid MT/OT, etc. Different gods are going to offer different abilities to suit your play style.

Q&A
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=397771

Q: First question is +DPS items.  When it has +5 DPS how much is that really worth?  I hear 900 DPS for typical fight a lot of times so who cares about 5 more?  I assume it is modifying your weapon creating more damage than that? 
A: DPS mod(like +5 DPS on an item) and DPS are two totally different things.  DPS mod affects how hard your auto attacks hit.  DPS mod works on a bell curve, meaning that the less of it you have the more effective each point of it is.  This bell curve is generally referred to as diminishing returns.  Most people try to shoot for around 100-150 DPS mod including temp buffs and procs.  After that point you don't see much of a benefit.  Its generally a good thing to work for since a buckler spec'd zerker should have about 55-65% of his total damage coming from auto attack.  DPS is damage per second when talking about parsing.  So if bob did 600 damage in 3 seconds he did 200 DPS.  Its used as a baseline for how well you play your class (damage wise) as every class has a ballpark DPS they should be putting out.

Q: When should one take a speed item?  If I get a +5 speed item but lose 1% parry or Mit is that a good trade-off?
A: A tanks primary job, to the contrary of what most people think, is not to stay alive... it's to keep the mob beating on you.  This doesn't mean you should run around in cloth expecting to be a good tank.  You really have to find a balance in survivability and DPS.  In short healers heal, good tanks keep agro.  If you have to spend all your power o hold it because you focused on survivability and the healer is sitting at almost max, then you know you need to start shifting to more DPS.

Q: When do you choose + Crit and + DA over +Def and +Parry?  If I get +1 to Crit or DA is that worth it to lose a +5 Def modifier?
A: See above

Q: Also I have been choosing +Def or +Crit and +DA over the power/healing procs.  Is there a time when you should choose the latter?
A: The idea is to make the game play fluid.  If you find yourself constantly running out of power then maybe you need to look into power proc items.  If you find your healer constantly out of power then maybe you need to look into heal procs or defensive stats.  When you find a balance in your duo while still killing challenging content you know you have the right idea for gear.

Tip: Generally with legendary+ gear, mitigation and avoidance start to diminish and you should really focus more on DPS.  After all more damage done faster = less damage taken.

Avoidance Skills (def, parry, etc.) Hard Cap: [ 1.5 * Level ] =

Attack Skill Hard Cap: - [ 1.5 * Level ]

 

Cmos@Butcherblock wrote:

Avoidance Skills (def, parry, etc.) Hard Cap: [ 1.5 * Level ] =

Attack Skill Hard Cap: - [ 1.5 * Level ]

 

uh?

fixed

Avoidance Skills (def, parry, etc.) Hard Cap: [ 6.5 * Level ]

Attack Skill Hard Cap: - [ 6.5 * Level ]

Berserk Clicky - With the addition of Adrenaline, and between Unyielding Will's death effect(Death's Door) and Juggernaught, this is a very viable end ability to have from the EoF tree once you hit 80.

I have do disagree with that one, it´s just waisted points as you are at least after the 2nd hit in berserkmode, for defense purpose it´s usually (even for raids) enought to cast wall of madness and anarchism before the pull.

all the other stuff, awesome work!

Isn't there also a static number added to each cap? Can't remember the amount for the life of me though.

Only on the basic stats, STR, STA, AGI, WIS, & INT

[ 15 * level + 20 ]

Berserk Clicky - With the addition of Adrenaline, and between Unyielding Will's death effect(Death's Door) and Juggernaught, this is a very viable end ability to have from the EoF tree once you hit 80.

I have do disagree with that one, it´s just waisted points as you are at least after the 2nd hit in berserkmode, for defense purpose it´s usually (even for raids) enought to cast wall of madness and anarchism before the pull.

all the other stuff, awesome work!

Worth reiterating that with all the +crit gear in RoK, weapon DR is even less the be-all-end-all determinant of weapon dps. Remember (crit% X 1.09 (max - min) + max + min) / delay = crit% adjusted DR. Don't forget to adjust delay down for any haste bonus on the weapon too (e.g. Star of the Morning's Glory in CoA) as long as you will benefit from said haste bonus.

Ruskoff wrote:

Berserk Clicky - With the addition of Adrenaline, and between Unyielding Will's death effect(Death's Door) and Juggernaught, this is a very viable end ability to have from the EoF tree once you hit 80.

I have do disagree with that one, it´s just waisted points as you are at least after the 2nd hit in berserkmode, for defense purpose it´s usually (even for raids) enought to cast wall of madness and anarchism before the pull.

all the other stuff, awesome work!

Agreed, just trying to justify it i guess... it does come in handy at times however, it is situational. I'll change some of the wording on that one.

Tips:

• The M2 version of Mock is not that much of a upgrade vs. the A3