Chronicon Cast On Hit Earthshatter Berserker Build

 
This build revolves around using Earthshatter by hitting with Take Down. The way that this works is thanks to a Lesser Rune, Shattering Impact, which will cast Earthshatter whenever you hit an enemy with either Take Down or Leap.

This rune, coupled with the Lesser Rune of Hard Knocks which reduces the cooldown of Take Down, Explosive Punch and Thunder Punch by 100%, means that you can cast Earthshatter every time that Take Down hits (which can be between 3-5 times a second with enough attack speed).

Earthshatter itself isn’t inherently impressive compared to other AoE skills, but the damage scales well and we are essentially hitting enemies with two separate hits back-to-back. This lets us generate Rage twice a hit which means we can take advantage of Rage Release without having to use a Northern Rage set.

• Moves really fast since Take Down moves at 400% of your MS (also a con, see below)
• Earthshatter lets you hit a lot more targets than your standard Glacier Roll or Take Down builds without investing in a lot of Reach
• Can be good for proc builds (like Chain Lightning) since it hits twice (though bleed only applies the stronger hit)
• Has good defensive options (Over 65% Damage Reduction and 60% Damage Staggered, really good after the changes to Stagger)
• Maximizes Overpower and Resistances without having it on your gear

• Requires a lot of lesser runes, which can be a pain to get due to RNG*
• Requires Mana on Hit and Mana Cost Reduction due to casting Take Down multiple times per second
• Very hard to play due to how Take Down works with Movement Speed (will crash into walls repeatedly when over 200% MS)
• Does not work prior to level 100, please look at leveling section for suggestions

*When trying to test this guide, I ended up getting the Shattering Impact Lesser Rune last. I got every other Lesser Rune before I ended up getting the main item in the build.

The main tree for our build. Take Down needs to be maxed out as it is how we maximize Earthshatter. We also have Brawler which, thanks to a mastery, will also increase Dragon damage by the same amount (which is needed for Earthshatter). You can also replace Brawler for Protector to get 40% of your rage as HP (at 300 Rage I got around 60k more HP), but keep in mind you lose a lot of damage for this at the cost of having a really powerful heal. There is no point to putting more points into Overpower, since we hit 100% once we get to around 250 rage. I chose to take a point in bleed over Devour since we have so much Health on Hit and Health Regeneration from the Sky Lord tree and Rage Release’s mastery.

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This tree is mainly for buffing 3 of our best stats: Overpower, Attack Speed, and Heritage Effect. We also get the added benefit of getting Health and Mana Regeneration from Dragon Spirit, which is appreciated when you have a lot of built-up stagger that you want to live past. Since you don’t have to actually deal damage to get Dragon Spirit, you can activate it by using Sky Power. For those who want more movement speed for whatever reason, you can choose to switch Sky Power for Dragon Flight since its active gives you more attack speed.

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This tree is really just for max HP, max rage, and more damage from Dragon Within, another heritage skill. We only take Thorns because we want to minimize the amount of minimum rage we have to maximize the Rage Release damage (or Frostborn Heirloom’s passive; see the Accessories section of the Gear chapter).

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This is a secondary tree to complement the Guardian tree. The main reason we maximize this tree is for its ultimate skill, Frostcall, which gives a ton Damage Reduction and Heritage Effect for its duration. This tree also has the Frostskin Heritage effect, which is how we’re able to maximize Resistances even when we are in Mythic 15+. At 305 Rage with a maxed out Ancestral Rage Lesser Rune, you get 150% resistances which puts you above 80% in all resistances in Mythic 15. Lastly, Rage Release is there to grant more Health and Mana regen. While it can do damage enough to make lower mythic levels easier, it falls off really fast once you start to focus more on Take Down and Earthshatter.

There are a few masteries that will really push your damage and survivability to where you can start doing Mythic 10’s and up. Endless Anomolies can be started at around 400 where you can get more max rage and boosts to both heritage and rage effects. I have numbered the masteries that are absolutely recommended to have before you start leveling Class Mastery 1-3.

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Here are the pictures of the recommended masteries in order:

Mainly for Earthshatter to benefit from Brawler.

Our main source of healing that will make us immortal in lower mythic ranks and help us survive in Mythic 15+.

Mainly for Take Down to benefit from Dragon Within

Heritage Effect is really good in this build.

40% Heritage Effect. Needs no extra reasoning.

Earthshatter is a dragon skill and for some reason works when you trigger it from Take Down.

You never want this to be down, even with a ton of CDR. It’ll also come back sooner if you died, so its just smarter to use it. Can be replaced with Lightning Mastery for more damage.

Please be aware that this section is not fully complete as I have not been lucky to get all of the gear I’ve planned for this build.

A better choice would be to use the Life Guard w/ Weyrick’s Crown since it gives 50% DR instead of 40% from the set effect, but I haven’t been able to get a Life Guard yet so this is what I’m using. Weyrick’s Crown is very important as it not only scales Health and Damage, but scales Mana which will be converted into damage (unless you take the alternative accessory for Rage Release). The helmet is also the perfect place to get Leech, which is mandatory and you should get it before you start to transition into this build.

A better choice would be to use the Cosmic Mantle as the True Legendary rather than the Mantle of the Dragonkin because too much movement speed can make this build really hard to use effectively and the Cosmic Mantle gives more mana which means more damage. That being said, you can still use Mantle if you feel the movement speed helps, but I feel like its too much movement speed at 5 stacks. There is also another alternative where you use Mantle of the Dragonkin and use the Released Heritage lesser rune so that you can use the Frostborn Heirloom crafted rune on your necklace slot.

A main part of your damage is converting all other damage types into Physical damage. With this, I’ve reached 1500%+ in physical. The Released Heritage lesser rune lets us stack Heritage bonuses, which are really powerful considering we have 4 of them. As mentioned in the Accessory (and later in the Ring) sections, you can replace the Released Heritage lesser rune for Frostborn Heirloom to maximize survivability since you will get so much HP once you get to 300+ Rage. You do, however, lose a lot of damage from not converting your mana to damage. (Around 50k to your damage stat at 12k mana).

One of the three set pieces you actually need (Life Guard can replace the helmet for more damage). The build explanation goes further into detail of why this piece is necessary. The Hard Knocks lesser rune is also part of the reason this build works, which I went over in the earlier sections.

One of the three set pieces you actually need (Life Guard can replace the helmet for more damage). The build explanation goes further into detail of why this piece is necessary. The Ancestral Rage lesser rune makes it so you can use Rage Release without ever losing your resistances or other stats. It also means you can stack as much maximum rage without having to also invest in minimum rage at all (aside from 1 skill point in the Dragonkin tree). This is a good place to get the mana cost reduction we need as well. Keep in mind that mana cost reduction is only mandatory if you are using the Cosmic Cape.

One of the three set pieces you actually need (Life Guard can replace the helmet for more damage). The build explanation goes further into detail of why this piece is necessary. The Face Breaker True Legendary is the most commonly used Berserker weapon I’ve seen. Its been in every build that I viewed when researching options for this build. It is especially broken for this build since we hit twice (3 times with Rage Release) and the buff is applied to all of the hits. While not necessary to get immediately, you’ll need it if you plan to push Endless Anomolies.

I tested using Staggering Boots and Battle Boots since we are always hitting with a mobility skill, but I found myself dying more often when using the Battle Boots than when I used the Staggering Boots. As for the Lesser Rune, its the main reason why we are making this build.

A main part of your damage is converting all other damage types into Physical damage. With this, I’ve reached 1500%+ in physical. The Kingsrock legendary is almost as much of a staple as Face Breaker since we get so much crit damage, max rage and maximum HP with it. As mentioned in the Accessory section, you can also replace this rune with Released heritage so that you could use the Frostborn Heirloom crafted rune on your necklace slot. I do not recommend this however as this provides you with damage and survivability from the reduced max rage.

I’ve added this section mainly to help anyone who might be interested in this build and wants to prepare themselves for endgame. For leveling, you can use pretty much any skill to level with. The most common one is Leap/Dragon Leap using the Brutal Stompers Legendary.

However, you cannot get them before level 20. I normally do a thorns build but I got more success getting to level 20 by just taking Take Down as soon as possible.

Once you’ve gotten the Brutal Stompers legendary, you can start working on getting all of the set legendaries in the build. Here are the skills I used at level 100 before I started Endless Dungeon Anomolies:

Focus entirely on the Guardian talent tree, then Dragonkin for the passive regen, then Sky Lord for Overpower, then finally Frostborn for Resistances. If you start having issues during leveling in the acts with health, then focus on the Guardian talent Tree until you get 5 ranks in Leap, and then focus on Dragonkin before going back to finish Guardian.