[Top 5] Elden Ring Best Berserker Builds That Are Powerful (NG+ to level 200)

Updated:

05 Sep 2024

The way of the Berserker

The Lands Between are a war torn place of chaos, magic and mighty warriors who have been heroes, and who have fallen from grace. More importantly, it is a world where not even the strongest can always survive, and the timid don't last long. In all of this, a type of warrior has risen who can meet the overwhelming odds, and fight them with a mighty roar. That is the berserker. Fast, equipped with strong weapons in both hands, and jumping straight into the middle of the fight is the way of the berserker. Sometimes the only way to deal with the madness is to charge straight into the heart of it and take everything with you.

What is a Berserker, the in and out of playing the battle crazy

Berserkers are probably one of my favorite builds to play in Elden Ring and it entirely has to do with the aggressive damage style and the fact that it doesn't take much difficult thinking. So what is the Berserker? For all intents and purposes, the two hardest hitting build styles in the game are the berserker and the barbarian. The key difference between these two is that the barbarian does a lot more damage per hit, and the barbarian is the class that uses the biggest, heaviest, strongest base damage weapons in the game.

The berserker, however, is even more aggressive and usually has the benefits of running two weapons to beat on the enemy with at the same time. Berserkers are one of my favorite play styles that I came across when I first started playing because they were one of the easiest styles to play that a person could just rush in and beat down the enemy. That's exactly how they play, too.

The original berserker build that I discovered was the beginner guide on Fextralife's build sections for the vagabond and the hero classes. The playstyle is one of the most straightforward too. I originally leaned towards it because of this, figuring that in the end I could branch out once I understood the game better. The thing was that once I understood the game better, the real nuances of the build began to make sense to me and I suddenly discovered I was sitting on one of the most effective ways to play the game.

Berserkers need two things to really make the build work and it's not just a weapon in either hand. Berserkers need to be fast, and they need to be very good about getting their hits in before the enemy can get theirs in. Being fast means that the armor will be lighter than the heaviest builds, and they will also need to be more aggressive about getting their hits landed. The good thing is that most weapons that power stance well together really do a number on the enemies when you're swinging both weapons at once.

The other big factor for the berserker is knowing your weapons inside and out. I originally started my builds with two weapons of different types, going off their stats more than anything. That's when I learned about power stances and that some weapons work well together with other weapons. The flip side is that sometimes you'll have what looks like two great weapons and suddenly you're getting wiped out by enemies that should never be able to touch you because you've built such a strong character. Synergy is just as important to this build as the weapon stats and the special abilities.

With all that said, even once I moved away from the berserker into builds like the Paladin and the Bushido players, I still found that I always kept my berserker rig hidden in my inventory, just waiting for the day that I found a boss or an enemy that frustrated me enough. If that happened, well it gets pretty common to see a certain Elden Ring character equip two very large curved greatswords to beat even the demigods into submission.

Ranking the Top 5

It's rare that there is a build or a playstyle that is so diverse that it's really hard to narrow it down to the top five and not be certain of it. That's one of the things that makes the Berserker so fun though, the complexity and nuance. This is a build that so heavily focuses on the weapons, and the ashes of war that just playing a type of berserker style based on the weapons can change the whole method to madness.

For the purpose of this build, I'm choosing the five best that I have managed to play, and I fully expect that with Shadow of the Erdtree there is going to be a whole list of new options once the great katanas and the new weapons get accounted for. The Void Knight already has a promising look, and honestly with a helm that looks like it's straight out of Lord of the Rings, who wouldn't want to play as Sauron the Berserker? I know I certainly will.

5. Berserker Ghoul

Braaiins

What is a Berserker Ghoul

The Berserker Ghoul is the name that I gave to the build of berserkers that focus on the use of scarlet rot and poison. These are both abilities that eat away at the enemy and they're pretty strong in their way. This build focuses on getting the poison and the scarlet rot going and then to use the damage to finish off the enemy fast with your preference in damage styles.

Playing a Berserker Ghoul

Stats:

Dexterity is the number one most valuable stat in this build because it's going to maximize the damage of just about every important weapon that can be found for this build. Scarlet Rot is still a build that is few and far between for options, but the weapons it does use are either large and better for Barbarian Builds, or they're fast weapons that rely on dexterity to get that damage rating.
Intelligence is common for the Rot weapons because it is used to scale so many of the rot weapons. There aren't going to be a lot of spells used in this build that are for rot, but there are several weapons that do scale with Intelligence which make it as useful as Strength for this build. For players that do want to lean towards adding scarlet rot spells, you're going to look at matching faith as well, just to make sure that this build gets the most out of the incantation powers
Vigor is good for two reasons. The higher the Vigor, the bigger the HP bar is, but Vigor also affects Immunity which is used to prevent scarlet rot and poison buildup. Vigor usually has caps at 40 and 60, but somewhere in between makes for a good comfort zone to keep yourself strong.

The Finer Points

Poison and Scarlet Rot usually find their way onto the list because they both can trigger and they both get boosted by the same talismans. That means any build with both gets two status effects for the price of one
While this is a great build that takes plenty off the enemy health bar, it also comes with its fair share of risks. Rot is also one of the only abilities that will hit both the player and the enemy if they end up in the rot clouds. Being able to trigger it is great, having to watch out for yourself too is not. Especially in berserker builds, where everything is a little bit wild and devil may care
The other downside to Scarlet Rot is that it takes a while to go down again, and that neither poison or rot can set or topped up once the effect is applied. So once that happens, the player needs to find a way to keep doing damage to make the most out of the build. That's part of why this build also comes with a life boost and other options to keep the fight aggressive.
Scarlet Rot may be a two edged sword, but it's also one of the best status effects in the game because they make a point that even the gods are capable of being consumed by the rot. It also works way more aggressively than even deadly poison damage so you can watch the boss lose a huge chunk of health to it once you have it set.

Gear Loadout:

Picking your Weapons:

Rotten Crystal Spear

Requirements 10 Strength, 16 Dexterity, 16 Intelligence

Rotten Crystal Spears are the original weapon for this build. You can run two of them pretty easily and they are some of the fastest attacking weapons in the game which makes it pretty easy to get the scarlet rot to trigger fast and keep it going. It also scales well with Dexterity and Intelligence which means that you can get some pretty solid damage out of these spears with the right talismans.

Antspur Rapier

Requirements 10 Strength, 20 Dexterity

This is another weapon that almost belongs on a fencer build instead of a berserker build because it's a thrusting sword. But if you pair it with the Cleanrot Knight's Sword that can be given rot grease, you get a very fast and very aggressive playstyle that meets the needs of the berserker. Antspur Rapier is also considered one of the universally best scarlet rot weapons in the game and it goes a long way in inflicting the damage and building up fast damage with talismans like Millicent's Prosthesis and Rotten Winged Sword Insignia

Coil Shield

Requirements: 10 Strength, 10 Dexterity

The Coil Shield makes for a great shield that can be paired off with something like the Butchering Knife or just as an offhand piece for something like the Antspur Rapier. The shield is popular with the original Rotten Crystal Spear build because of the special ability which inflicts deadly poison at a fast rate. I use poison as more of a backup piece to straight damage once the scarlet rot gets going, so I don't run it as often. But it does serve the purpose for a build that follows the original Scarlet Spear Fextralife build.

Butchering Knife

Requirements: 16 Strength, 20 Dexterity

Now there's not a lot that actually suggests this is a good weapon for the build, but I like the way that it plays. The reason for this is because I almost play Scarlet rot the same way that I play vampiric builds in Elden Ring. I get the status affliction going first and then I beat on my enemies while sucking away their HP to refuel my own. It's not scarlet rot specific, but the butcher blade does leech HP and it can be enchanted with a wide variety of Ashes of war including the Spinning Slash, Stormcaller, and Wild Strikes which all hit the opponent over and over triggering a buildup of straight physical damage while also boosting your own health, even if it's just a little.

Gear Loadout:

Helms

Mushroom Crown- Boosts damage 10% whenever poison or rot triggers nearby.
Twinned Helm

Armor

Mushroom Body- good for the immunity stat
Black Knife Armor
Twinned Armor- has a high vitality

Gauntlets

Mushroom Arms- good for the immunity stat
Black Knife Gauntlets
Twinned Gauntlets- has a high vitality

Greaves

Mushroom Legs- good for the immunity stat
Black Knife Greaves
Twinned Greaves- has a high vitality

Extra Essentials:

Talismans

Kindred of Rot's Exultation- Increases damage whenever poison or rot occurs nearby
Rotten Winged Sword Insignia- increases damage on consecutive hits
Millicent's Prosthesis- Increases damage on multiple strikes
Spear Talisman- improves damage of thrusting weapons
Blessed Dew Talisman- slowly heals health whenever hp is low

Staffs and Seals

Dragon Communion Seal

Spells

Golden Vow- Increases damage by 15% and damage negation by 10%
Blessing's Boon- Gradually heals HP over time
Poison Mist- Spews poison mist that poisons the enemy
Rotten Breath- unleashes a dragon breath attack of scarlet rot
Poison Moth Flight- releases a swarm of poison moths to poison the enemy

Stat Loadout

50-60 Vigor
20-28 Mind
35-50 Endurance
21-35 Strength
65-80 Dexterity
40-45 Intelligence
25-36 Faith
12-27 Arcane

Build Credits:

Rotten Crystal Spear build by Fextralife

http://fextralife.com/elden-ring-scarlet-rot-build-guide-scarlet-spear/

Festering Soldier build by Pastorgainz Games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5wR6ZKKfsY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVLkMvresJg

4. Hoarfrost Howler

That's cold, bro

What is a Hoarfrost Howler

The Hoarfrost Howler is the name of the berserker of the north which deals in frost and fire damage. Ice and Fire seems to have been a favorite of the George R. R. Martin inspired franchises because the Frostbite skill works so well when combined with fire damage even though the two of them don't really seem like they would normally work out. They do though, and this build works as a great critical hit damage dealing play style that wipes out big enemies and trash mobs with ease.