Berserker is one of the specializations available for the warrior class in Dragon Age: Origins, providing minor ability bonuses and four potential talents.
Background
Experienced warriors tell of the horrors of war, of steeling one’s courage and fighting through pain and fear that would cripple lesser men. According to them, to give over to rage in battle is to hand victory to your opponents; anger clouds one’s mind and forces a warrior to make foolish and often fatal mistakes. The deadly berserkers dare – for a berserker would never beg – to differ. To them, the only way to conquer the terror of war is to become that terror yourself.
Founded centuries ago as a fighting tradition among the dwarves of the Frostback Mountains, the berserker philosophy is simple: embrace the rage, internalize the terror, and wreak horror upon the field of battle. When a berserker rages, finesse, precision, and honor cower in the face of pure violence and blades flash in a haze of red mist. While this makes berserkers unpredictable on the field, it also makes them terrifying to behold and even the vile and mindless darkspawn have been known to cower in the face of a squad of raging berserkers.
While berserkers make up a significant part of the dwarven Warrior Caste, the tradition was long ago taught to the Avvar barbarians in the Frostbacks and through them made its way to the Ash Warriors, who are themselves the most renowned mercenaries in human lands. Today, many human and dwarven armies go into battle with a squad or two of berserkers, always on the front lines, ready to go mad and kill without fear.
Berserker Talents
Berserk may refer to:
- Berserk (Origins), a warrior talent in Dragon Age: Origins.
- Berserk (Dragon Age II), a warrior talent in Dragon Age II.
- An item property in Dragon Age: Inquisition that can be applied to weapons and armor through Fade-touched masterwork leathers and metals during crafting or found as exisiting property on some equipment.
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
Resilience may refer to:
- Resilience (Origins), a warrior talent in Dragon Age: Origins
- Resilience (Dragon Age II), a warrior talent in Dragon Age II
- Resilience (Inquisition), a warrior talent in Dragon Age: Inquisition
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
Constraint |
Passive Requires: Level 10 |
The berserker has learned to retain control during rages, reducing Berserk's penalty to stamina regeneration. |
Final Blow |
Activated Range: Personal Activation: 5 Cooldown: 60s Requires: Level 12 |
All the berserker's stamina goes into a single swing. If the blow connects, the attack inflicts extra damage proportional to the amount of stamina lost. |
Unlocking
Berserker can be unlocked by having Oghren teach it if his approval rating is high enough. Alternatively, there is a manual available from Gorim in Denerim Market District.
Strategy
The Berserker specialization is very useful against most enemies, but often lacks the ability to deal with a mage. Once you have the chance to choose a second specialization, it is wise to select the Templar specialization. Due to its anti-mage capabilities such as Righteous Strike and Cleanse Area, it gives the Berserker a much better chance of dealing heavier damage to a mage. Also Berserkers can easily fall victim to magic spells such as Vulnerability Hex which require a large mental reisistance to resist the spell. With the Mental Fortress ability it is possible to shrug off most of those spells, making the Berserker's job a lot easier. A way to deal an ungodly amount of damage would be using reaver as a second specialization, not using any actual moves that consume stamina and waiting for your health to drop low, final blow could then deal easily 300 damage, the downside is afterwards you are nearly useless to your group (note: final blow can have its cooldown activated without doing damage or using stamina if you are stunned or hit at the right time confirmed: PS3)
Bugs
If you save, and then purchase the manual from Gorim to get the Berserker class, and then load the original save again to have the class, but not have to purchase the manual, (on PC) Gorim will not have the manual to purchase again, and your character will not be able to select the Berserker specialization in the level up menu, until you level up again, then you will be able to select Berserker as a specilization. This has also been confirmed on Xbox 360.
Notable Berserkers
References
- Dragon Age: Origins - PRIMA Official Strategy Guide