Dual Wielding Berserker

[dragon wench]

Since I'm plenty familiar with mages and rogues, I decided to do something a bit out of character on this current playthrough...
I've never favoured warriors much, but I decided to try a Human Noble, Dual Wielding Berserker as it best fits my play style out of all the warrior builds. I don't like tanking.. and besides, Alistair is a fine tank (and Shale can be used that way too), nor am I crazy about two-handed weapons, too slow, and again, two party members already use them.

I'm focusing on the entire Dual Weapon tree, along with the Berserker talents, and I'm pumping points into Dexterity and Strength as well as some into Willpower (So far Con has not been an issue). Because I like two modes running, I'm using light armour... (plus I've just never been wild about heavy armour, no matter it's perks, just not my style )

All I can say is.. holy crap...
I had no idea a DPS Warrior could be so deadly. :speech:
With both Momentum and Berserk running, and plenty of stamina left over for special attacks (along with decent HP despite not pumping Con), this character is a dervish of death and destruction.. and she's also lots of fun to play.
What a pleasant surprise!

Anyone else tried this type of character?

[Claudius]

I play (1st playthrough) a strength (and a lot of dex for talents) rogue and I think it would play similar since I am using talent spam rather than backstabbing. I am the only melee so he is tanking but since there is 2 mages with cc and healing it comes out fine. I don't have berserk but I was pleased with dual weapon sweep especially. I think you get 2 criticals on anyone in your area and the stamina use isn't that much. Momentum is outstanding. Flurry is great to take down a single target. I'm actually in heavier armor I'm wearing a mixture of the warden commander and King Cailan's armor. Usually I have enough stamina to dual sweep, flurry, and dirty fighting (rogue remember) and then I run out but at that point I have enough left to just switch on momentum and auto attack.

(spoiler if you haven't done urn of sacred ashes.....illustrates DW DPS power)
I know what you mean about damage. I fought my clones at one point and I was thinking that the key would be to take out the Morrigan and Wynne clones. Next thing I look up and I'm like "whoa everyone is dead except my DPS rogue. The reason was that the clone DPS rogue had killed the whole party in the blink of an eye. I was still able to finish off my clone and Leliana and Morrigan simply because of bad AI (not using poultices/coatings/good tactics.... But the point is how fast a bad AI clone decimated my party moreso than any of the genlocks and hurlocks etc that I normally face

[dragon wench]

I play (1st playthrough) a strength (and a lot of dex for talents) rogue and I think it would play similar since I am using talent spam rather than backstabbing.

I also have a DPS rogue, and I thought the play would be quite similar. It's actually much different than I thought it would be. For one, I've noticed my berserker is **far** less fragile due to a the innate higher warrior HP along with the berserker revitalising.
As I said above, Berserk mode stacked with Momentum is just nasty.. you hit very hard and very fast.
Another difference is that the DW berserker seems able to keep up a sustained stream of damage as opposed to bursts.
I'll be curious to see how the damage output will compare. She's still in the relatively early part of the game, I've only done some assorted miscellaneous quests, the Brecillian Forest and I'm about to finish up the Fade.

I still love playing rogues, but I'm certainly enjoying the change of pace.

[Scottg]

Anyone else tried this type of character?

Oh yes!

It's a LOT of damage.. and it can even hit pretty often to. I find that Champion is the best 2nd specialization for this build (..just from the class itself, NOT including class restricted items).

As long as you have plenty of healing potions and some Constitution stat bonuses, it's a really good character.

I should note that what "turned me onto" this type of build was my first play-through and the dual-wield leader of the group that attacks you the first time you arrive in the Frostback Mountains. (..he was "waxing" my party with crazy speed..)

One other thing.. the Warrior (in and of itself) doesn't offer much greater damage per second than the Rogue (excluding Backstabs), nor are attack numbers necessarily better. The damage calculation is +.2 per 2 levels for the Rogue and .4 for *3* levels for the Warrior. The real difference is leveraging Strength and adding-on the Berserker's additional +8 damage. BTW, a Berserker's Final Blow (using only one melee weapon and not a dagger), can more than double the damage of a single Backstab attack. (..to bad you can't use it that often.)

[dragon wench]

I should note that what "turned me onto" this type of build was my first play-through and the dual-wield leader of the group that attacks you the first time you arrive in the Frostback Mountains. (..he was "waxing" my party with crazy speed..)

Funny you should mention that...
I had also observed that my parties were getting creamed by that particular "welcoming committee" and I too took note.. So, this was partly my inspiration for the build as well.
Interestingly, I just finished that battle with my DW berserker, and this was one of the few times where I had almost no problems... something about returning the favour... my character went in there like a wood chipper on speed..

[Scottg]

..my character went in there like a wood chipper on speed..

:laugh:

[Nerodude747]

This a very powerfull build, but I tried a slight twist and so far it is almost too easy.
Dual wield bezerker, but only use dual strike & dual wep specialzation with two daggers.
Pump up dex.
I am only level 10, and have 30 base dam per dagger so 60 per hit + the runes & flame wep averaging 80 per strike, with the dager speed.....!
& 73% hit rate.

I finish off 2 or 3 before the rest of the party even gets one.

[Thing]

Having studiously avoided the beserker approach over the last 6 games, I was intrigued to see what effect DW's idea would have. Having picked up Oghren in Orzamar I knew I would HAVE to have him in the party for the Branka confrontation so that seemd like a good opportunity to try it out. I re-specced Oghren and built up the total dual-wield and beserker trees.

Holy cr*p ! Talk about a knife through butter.... by the time I got to Caradin I had built up a few more constitution points and the little foul-mouthed dwarf devasted everything in his path. Until I tried this combination of skills I had relied heavily on my mages to clear out areas at a distance (Spell Might+Blizzard+ Tempest= Storm of the Century) plus some grease and fireballs. This time my main mage character and Wynne were less defensive and more directly agressive.

Certainly spectacular, but perhaps a tad too easy.

Thanks for the idea DW - interesting experience!

[Scottg]

Certainly spectacular, but perhaps a tad too easy.

If enough opponents "gang-up" on the DW Berserker.. then it's not so easy.

Physical and Mental disabling effects can be murder on the character as well.. and web and overwhelm are particularly nasty effects. In fact with overwhelm the character can literally be "rolled", (and re-rolled), before ever landing a hit - and several poison attacks latter the only thing keeping them alive is support from a healer. :speech:

I've never re-spec'ed a party remember in the Origins, but I did that for both Oghren and Sigrun in Awakenings - and while they were both very good (dual-wielders), they just weren't competitive with my Mage. Still... coolest single effect in the game was Sigrun's *Flicker*.

[trixxstyles]

any chance on a break down on what skills and where/how many points go to where? new to the game and got it over the weekend

[Lord++Revan]

I made a DW warrior and was pulling off epic DPS and he had Berserk and champion spec and was tank built. He had had Oathkeeper and a dagger(can't remember the name)the extra healing on Oathkeeper was awesome and he was a formidable character overall