Berserker Warrior

For anyone interested I will be posting my stats, skills and gear for my level 40 warrior when I get the chance (I need to log back onto the game to write them all down) but if this is the type of class you want to build then hopefully you'll be interested in this topic.

Firstly my warrior (Andreas) is a beast and can pretty much goe toe to toe with any boss and any medium (6-9) sized mob (with potions of course otherwise I would just die) and can take them down quickly aswell, sacrificing any defence stats or skills for all out strenth and attacking skills (mostly passive) he is only kept alive by killing the enemy before they get chance to harm him (and potions, I think I mentioned that before) yes potions are definitely necessary for this build.

Quick note, when playing multiplayer I can normally take on a boss or mob single handedly when there are 2 people however with 3-4 people playing, enemies are much, much harder and charging a mob or boss on my own normally resulsts in me getting my ass handed to me.

Welcome to the forums, good to have you on board - you win the first post award!

I'm really interested in your build as one of my toons is a pure defensive tank, the complete opposite to yours, be interesting to see the difference...

Think I'll wait a bit to post mine though, only lvl17 atm so not very tank-y yet...

If played all 3 classes to about level 10 now, and am thinking at this stage that tanking is going to be the way forward for solo play.

I've not tried MP yet....

Stats
Strength 101
Dexterity 30
Endurance 20
Energy 9

You get 2 points per level to put into your stats, I put about 80-90% of my points into strength and the remaining into dexterity simply because most weapons require dexterity aswell as strength to use.
I didn't go for endurance because it just means more health and points are better spent on strength.
Energy is basically your mana for casting skills, again there is no real need to put points into this stat for a warrior.

Also armor, weapons and rings have bonuses on them, most of my gear adds +2 to all stats or +4 to 2 or 3 of them.

Weapon Bonus (the higher the number the more damage you will do with that weapon type)

Dagger 47
Sword 108
Axe 110
Mace 107
Bow 22
Staff 4

Armor 910
Attack 262-356

Skills

There are 21 skills in total, divided into 7 Tiers (3 skills per tier), there are 11 active skills and 10 passive.
Active skills must be mapped to a button and activated while passive skills are always activated.
Skills can have 5 points put into them on hero mode and 10 on legend mode, you get 1 point per level for a total of 75 points.

Tier 1

Slam (Active) - Meelee attack that can knock enemies back - You start with 1 point this basic attack, ok at first but better skills later on I have not put any extra points into this skill. 5/10
Cleave (Active) - Basically a sweeping version of slam hitting more enemies but still a basic attack that I put 1 point into early game and have not touched since. 6/10
Guardian Defence (Passive) - Increases chance of blocking and resisting attacks - Have not put any points into this as I feel this is better for a Tank type character.

Tier 2

Leadership (Passive) - Increases XP and reduces shop costs - I put 1 point into this but wish I hadn't, only increases XP by 1% per level and you shouldn't be buying anything from the shop anyway. 1/10
Ravager (Passive - Increases damage when using a single meelee weapon and increases chance of critical hit - very useful for a 2 handed weapon, if you want to use a shield and sword don't put any points into this, at level 5 it gives bonus damage +50 with a 5% critical chance. 7/10
Charge (Active) - Charge pushing opponents back with extra damage when using a shield - No points because only useful with a shield otherwise damage is low.

Tier 3

Crushing Blow (Active) - Powerful vertical strike which can also stun - Didn't use this skill although damage is stated very high compared to other attacks.
Large Pouch (Passive) - Increases potion count by 3 for every level - I put 3 points into this for an extra 9 potions don't think anymore points are needed although if you want a few extra potions a couple more points should be fine. 6/10
Invigorating Aura (Active) - Increases you and your allies MP regen and speed - Never used as I don't need increased MP regen and you only have 3 spots for skills.

Tier 4

Vengeful Aura (Passive) - Sends attack damage back to the attacker - Not much point to this unless your tanking because you will kill most enemies in 2-3 hits anyway.
Crippling Strike (Active) - Sacrifice 5% health to deliver 3 crushing blows - Awesome, seems so overpowered, the 5% health is nothing compared to the damage this attack does every warrior should have this skill. 10/10
Battle Standard (Active) - Summons a battle standard (just a flag) that increases you and your allies armor, damage and HP regen - Very useful, just activate it and a small flag and orange radius appear (I don't believe you have to stay within the radius for the effects) and you get a small damage boost, good armor boost and a decent HP regen, I seem to take alot less damage when I use this skill compared to fighting wthout it. 7/10

Tier 5

Heavy Lifter (Passive) - Reduces strength requirement to use equipment and at level 5 you can use a 2 handed weapon in 1 hand - Top skill for a Tank warrior as you can use a shield and a 2 handed sword at the same time which is much more powerful than a 1 handed sword. 8/10 (Tank Warrior)
Whirling Blades (Active) - A single spin attack - Wasn't impressed, used to much mana and wasn't good enough i'd much rather spend points on something else.
Hardiness (Passive) - Increases your Natural Armor - Adds 20 armor per level for a total of 200 extra armor, great for a Tank. 7/10 (Tank Warrior)

Tier 6

Fast Metabolism (Passive) - Increases HP regen by 2 per second per level - Again another skill for a Tank warrior but not much use for a berserker.
Blood Rage (Passive) - Increases damage and speed after killing an enemy - Great skill, increases damage slightly and speed slighlty and lasts 4 second after killing an enemy, but all you have to do is kill an enemy and it's instantly activated, would reccomend for most warrior builds. 8/10
War Cry (Active) - A roar increases you and your allies meelee an range damage - Awesome all warriors should get this skill adds 20 damage at first and 10 for each level after that but also increases all allies attack including ranged. 9/10

Tier 7

Weapon Specialist (Passive) - Increases Weapon Bonus for Sword, Axe and Mace type weapons which increases damage dealt - Another skill any warrior should get, improves your attack with 3 weapon types, adds 7 bonus damage per level for a toal of 70 bonus damage with the 3 weapon types. 10/10
Spinning Charge (Active) - Spinning attack that lasts as long as you have enough mana - A upgraded version of Whirling Blades that uses far to much mana to be useful, if you must have a 360 degree move though then choose this one, but I wouldn't bother personally unless you have loads of stat points put into energy you will be lucky to get 3 spins out of this which leaves you with no War Cry or Battle Standard.
Fairy Radiance (Active) - An Aura that gives you and your allies (I think) the ability to damage close range enemies with fire - Meh, not much point, it's an active skill so it takes up 1 of your 3 spaces an damage isn't too high, although it is about 50-60 you can do more with the War Cry and Battle Stadard buffs I believe.

I'll update and add stuff at another time, this should be sufficent for now.

Wow some nice info there, maybe I should get crippling strike after all...

hmm interesting .. i just got started on mine .. will be posting mine once i get going .. i picked the warrior as well cuz .. well in D2 Lod i was a PvP Barb haha

will be posting mine soon and ... great forum by the way

Nice post - looks like I'll be giving more of my hard earned money to the re-config guy...

Yeah crippling strike is awesome im going full 10/10 when i can mine is at 6/10 atm but ill have to respec and put more into strength so i can use a couple of axes i got at the end of the first playthrough. Hey Freecity about how much extra HP does 20 endurance give you? I think my end is at 35 or 40 im not sure i have 1300 something HP at 39.

To start, I need to give credit to Freecity. I used their post as a starting point for my berserker warrior. I'm going to call mine a berserker/survival warrior though and you will see why. I used Freecity's suggestion of where to put your 2 points per level. So these are my base stats.

str=120
dex=49
end=10
energy=3

I used most of Freecity's suggestions on skill points with some personalizations:
Ravager=10 - Damage and crit are important in this build
Large Pouch=4 - You need at least 4 points in this. Sometimes I wish I had 5 but in most situations 4 points is more than enough.
Vengeful Aura=5 - I ran out of places worth putting points into and this is useful against attacking archers.
Crippling Strike=10 - This is your key move. You want to be able to spam it.
Battle Standard=10 - When you are fighting large mobs, this will be crucial. The extra HP regen and extra damage makes this spell important. Party members like it as well.
Heavy Lifter=5 - Having 5 points in Heavy Lifter will let you hold a shield and a 2 handed axe. The shield is good for stats.
Blood Rage=10 - extra damage and the speed boost is nice for continuously killing the enemies.
Warcry=10 - Again, more damage. This buff is needed for this build. Also, its a good party buff.
Weapon Specialist=10 - More damage.

After gear and skill points are allocated, these are my stats:
str=157
dex=72
end=40
energy=19

There are also a few stats you want to stack. These are str, crit, hp regen, and a little mp regen. Str raises your RH dam. Mine is 344-601. Crit is also something worth stacking in this build because it makes your attacks do double damage. You want it to be at least 25%. Mine is exactly 25%. That means that 1 out of every 4 attacks does double the normal damage. HP regen does two things with this build. First, since you are not completely a tank, having high hp regen is useful for not stopping to heal. Second, it helps combat the 5% health you lose everytime you use Crippling Strike. As I said, you will be spamming this so 5% every time you use it adds up. So, my hp regen is 54.3. Also to fight the 5% health loss from Crippling Strike and the damage from enemies, I made sure my weapon gives me health per kill. MP regen does not have to be stacked as much but it is very important in spamming Crippling Strike. My mp regen is 42.4. It did not take much effort to get it to 42.4. With this amount, you can make 98% of your attacks Crippling Strike. In an attempt to get my RH dam to 600, I tried taking 12 mp regen away and getting a piece with str instead and it ruins the build. You need the 42.4 mp regen minimum to spam Crippling Strike.

You can choose whichever axe you want but I use the 2 handed immortal axe which gives you +7 str, 300 fire damage, 15-75 magic damage, and 48 hp per kill. I found the other immortal axes which have extra slow and stun chance pointless because I usually kill the enemies before slow and stun can take effect. Also, both of my rings add 15 to axe damage.

Here is my total gear list in case anyone wants to copy or improve on mine. I am always interested in knowing how people have improved on it so please keep me posted. I got all of this gear from the gates and Leper Joe.

2H Immortal Axe: +7 str, 300 fire damage, 15-75 magic damage, +48 HP per kill
Moonstone Shield: +7 str, +150 MP, +2.3% to block, +16 magic resistance
Diamond Torso: +4 to all attributes, +150 HP, +12 HP Regen, +16 magic resistance
Full Plate Helmet: +4 to all attributes, +12 MP Regen, +2.2% to Crit, +16 magic resistance
Diamond Gloves: +7 to End, +12 HP Regen, +2.2% to Crit, +16 magic resistance
Full Plate Feet: +4 to all attributes, +12 MP Regen, +2.2% to Crit, +56 armor
Diamond Waist: +7 to Str, +7 to End, +12 MP Regen, +56 armor
Paladin Ring: +4 to all attributes, +150 HP, +12 HP Regen, +15 damage with axes
Moonstone Ring: +7 to Dex, +12 HP Regen, +2% to Dodge, +15 damage with axes

Finally, how do you play this build? Everyone has their favorite play style and the style that I've found works best for this build is to attack enemies at a sword's tip distance (in this case axe tip). You take almost no damage and you kill them fast. This is ideal but this is also very difficult if you are playing with other players. With your battle standard out and War Cry active, you can usually one hit kill every enemy in a mob and it doesn't take long to take down bosses either. With the battle standard out and War Cry active and if you crit the most damage you can do is 2806 damage in one Crippling Strike attack. I don't know about anyone else but that is a lot in my book. The only downside I have found to this build is the same as Freecity noted above which is that this build is not great in games with 3-4 players. In larger groups, I usually use my tank warrior which does much less damage but can usually out live every other player and kill the enemies without reviving the other players until the enemies and/or boss is killed.

My user name online is Chertrek (same as my user name on this website) so if you see me on feel free to pst me. I play the game on a Mac.