Give 'Em Hell!

As a young Barbarian, berserks will be your first and best ability. Not until past twentieth circle will you earn a Dance that helps you become a more effective killing machine in melee combat; you earn Blood Berserk at second circle, however. Listed below is a detailed description of berserks thus far; if you have useful strategies not shown here or information on higher-circle berserks, feel free to contact diminishedangel@yahoo.com. Make sure the header is "Barbarian Berserks."

All Berserks seem to share the following functions:

• They draw on your Inner Fire for power.
• They give bonuses to select statistics, or all of them.
• They increase your intimidation factor (Roars), either in small part or large.
• As all stats give a bonus to your magic resistance (and all berserks increase some statistic or another), all berserks effectively boost your magic resistance, be the boost small or great.
• If you are laying down or sitting/kneeling, all of them bring you to your feet (great in combination with next one).
• All of them snap you out of stun (this saps your inner fire). You can trigger any berserk while stunned; if stunned while already in a berserk, you will recover from stun every time your berserk 'tics.' (That is, every time you get the "mad rage" message, which is every twenty seconds or so). Note that Berserks will NOT bring you back to consciousness if you get knocked out.
• Most prevent you from retreating in combat, so use them wisely.

• Blood Berserk (2nd circle). Welcome to the Barbarian's guild. Blood Berserk is your first berserk earned, and serves as a rather poignant introduction to the system of berserks that Bararians earn. The stat of choice for Blood Berserk seems to be strength. Where normally you might land good hits, with Blood Berserk you will find yourself causing greater wounds, and achieving critical hits much more often. Boost to both your magic resistance and intimidation factor seems to be minimal.
• Stone Berserk (5th circle). The first of the Barbarian's potentially fantastic abilities. As its name implies, Stone Berserk gives a bonus to your stamina. This makes your damage tolerance much greater; since most deaths are stamina deaths (meaning you die because your health reaches 0), Stone Berserk will help greatly when fighting several enemies at once. The greatest feature of this Berserk is its instant-health restoration. Like all berserks, if you're laying down and stunned because the goblin smacked you hard, triggering a Berserk will bring you back to your feet. Stone is the only beserk for a long, long time that will refill your vitality to max, however. So, if you're almost dead from vitality loss: use Stone Berserk! It will save you more deaths than you can count. Intimidation bonus is minimal, and magic resistance bonus is nominal (it's okay, but not great). The inner fire cost is notable. The inner fire cost is notable. You cannot retreat during this berserk.
• Nightmare Berserk (12th circle). Nightmare berserk is designed exclusively to help with your intimidation factor. In simpler terms, it increases the power and success rate of all of your Roars. Since charisma is the primary trait that determines the power of Roars, my guess would be that Nightmare gives a charisma bonus. Very useful in conjunction with Roars that are offensive and difficult to achieve (Banshee's Wail, Lash of Torment, Death's Shriek). The inner fire cost is rather small; I have often used Nightmare and then been back to full before it even ends. Intimidation bonus is good (of course), and magic resistance bonus is small. It is significant to note that you CAN retreat during this berserk. A good berserk to burn regularly with powerful Roars.
• Flame Berserk (20th circle). Think of this as a souped-up Blood Berserk. The primary stat is strength, and a lot of it, but there seems to be a slight stamina bonus as well. The strength is the real use. By a strength bonus, I mean a very LARGE boost to strength. Bones will crush and heads will fly. What fun! Intimidation bonus is small, and magic resistance bonus is notable. A lot of Barbarians skip over this berserk for the Badger Dance. Badger is very good, but I would never recommend excluding any berserk from your arsenal. The greatest detriment to this berserk is that it takes a LOT of inner fire. You cannot retreat during this berserk.
• Cyclone Berserk (35th circle). Now we're starting to get into better eschelons of Barbarian prowess. Cyclone berserk functions primarily on agility. This helps with ranged attacks (though not as much as Eagle Dance, so using it for that is moot). It helps maintain balance, but the greatest use of this berserk is being 'invigorated'. When using this berserk, you parry/evade more efficiently, and your round-times for attacks are reduced. In other words, you move a lot quicker (hence Cyclone). Inner fire drain is significant. Intimidation bonus is small, and magic resistance bonus is decent. It is worthy to note that, like Nightmare berserk, you CAN retreat during this berserk, making it fun to burn when you're bored. Another possible strategy is to use Cyclone berserk to snap you out of a stun, and then immediately retreat. I believe this berserk actually makes it easier to retreat, since you're more nimble.

Note: This is where my personal experience with berserks ends. Anyone with reliable information on the more advanced berserks (and where to obtain them), please contact me at the email address listed at the top of this page.

• Steel Berserk. This is a very unusual berserk. It functions a lot like an advanced version of Stone Berserk; however, instead of using your inner fire to boost statistics, it involves simply hiding behind an Empath with really, really high stamina. This saps your inner fire because- come on... hiding behind a Puff? No real killers would do that. So your inner fire is drained, you pussy. This actually gives a huge PENALTY to your intimidation and magic resistance, unless the Empath is really, really, really scary. In that case, it's the best berserk in the game. Of course you can retreat during this berserk: you're basically cowering anyways, wuss.
• Grave Berserk. The funny thing about this Berserk is that you can only use it when dead. Basically, all it does is give you new verbs to use. Ever heard a dead man belch? How about dance Cobra? How about roar? Of course, they all do absolutely nothing. But still, it's great to enterain yourself by foaming at the mouth while waiting for that Cleric to show up.