[3.1] BERSERKER/JUGGERNAUT 288k DPS Ice Crash/EQ Crit Staff AKA "The Shattering Karui"

With your personal Preference id like to mention

hopefully for your benefit also (if you were unaware of this)

Going the jewel socket (Below Overcharge) like you mention and getting Energised Armour as the Jewel as it gives 96% additional Armour (with Faith and Steel Nodes) over 74% from Soul And Steel would additional 22% armour Make up for 4% additional Phys Damage Reduction (if there is diminishing returns on armour)from Soul of Steel? This Socket also allows you to hot swap for Dangerous Maps. Thoughts??

Still leveling away and have moved out of Resolute Technique but I'm a long way yet from being a mean crit machine. Was experiencing more squishiness as I was progressing into maps so decided to play around a little with some of my gem set ups till I found something that works well for me now.

Current Gear


My gear is not optimal but is serving me well enough and the five link chest has really helped as I deal good damage now and the LGOH is working wonders for me. It's an essential part of my Cycloner and I decided to implement it here for the reason that standing fast and doing damage helps keep my life up. Particularly when leap slamming into mobs and Ice Crash can hit multiple enemies at once. If I had a six link I'd probably throw Increased Area of Effect in there to give myself more breathing space.

My mana leech is great in mobs but if I'm spamming a single target for a while I can run out of mana. It's the bane of ice crash's high mana use and all the +% skill gem links that suddenly increase the skill cost significantly. Currently manageable but it's like that 6 link would put me over the top. First world problems and not one I have to worry about yet.

Hopefully I can acquire enough currency to secure a Hegemony's Era before the league is done.

Current Skill Tree



Time to start heading to the staff crit circle at the top but that's another 10 levels away and I don't know if I'll get that far. A downside to using the Duelist instead of the Marauder as it's a little less efficient. There's no doubt a few points I can reclaim once I get to the circle but for now they're doing me greater benefit by being allocated to areas that aren't +10 stat points.

Overall, still having a blast with the build and am looking forward to some extra improvements in my character. Would be great if GGG added a skill effect MTX to use every now and then. A gore version like for Glacial Cascade would be logical but I hope they would do something a little unusual instead. Perhaps shining steel blades, bamboo spears, or something completely goofy like neon pink tentacles.

If anyone want to play this for the 1-month and has any questions, feel free to ask :)

I'm currently using this build for the 1-month "softcore" race.

Damage wise is good enough with decent items and that's not an issue, but to survive its more of a problem.

Would you recommend any modification to the passive tree to avoid getting one-shot by high spike damage? There are some insane combos that can appear during this race which will make some bosses really dangerous so any help will be preciated.

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Olendoirus wrote:

I'm currently using this build for the 1-month "softcore" race.

Damage wise is good enough with decent items and that's not an issue, but to survive its more of a problem.

Would you recommend any modification to the passive tree to avoid getting one-shot by high spike damage? There are some insane combos that can appear during this race which will make some bosses really dangerous so any help will be preciated.

You can simply go for the "hardcore" version of the tree listed in the post. Go for stuff like Unyielding, etc. Also, getting a lightning coil helps.

I could give you more potential tips if you listed your gear and linked your passsive tree.

Hey, i have been away for over a year and have pretty much forgotten everything so excuse any stupid comments haha.

OK so i wanted to try a new skill and this tickled my fancy. I wanted to make a mace version though since i have that unique mace that hits slow but hard (forget the name), at least until i can afford to gear out a crit staff dude. I think i have appropriately changed the skills needed but i am a little rusty so would a mace version ever be included? Also i am unfamiliar with the skill but why don't we take any elemental damage nodes like the triangle bunch ones on the left of templar area? Other than that excellent guide, really helps someone like me who has, like i said, literally forgotten everything lol.

You can absolutely do Ice Crash with a mace, but you'd go for Resolute Technique then, not for crit. If you want crit and a higher damage output, you use staves. You can find a mace build for ice crash in this forum sub-section (for the marauder).

Ele nodes are not as efficient as physical nodes because the skill, like all skills that transform a part of your pyhsical damage into damage of an element (infernal blow, static strike etc.), scales off of physical damage. So the physical damage modifiers increase both the physical and the elemental portion of your damage, while elemental modifiers increase only the elemental portion.

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ComradeSerge wrote:

You can absolutely do Ice Crash with a mace, but you'd go for Resolute Technique then, not for crit. If you want crit and a higher damage output, you use staves. You can find a mace build for ice crash in this forum sub-section (for the marauder).

Ele nodes are not as efficient as physical nodes because the skill, like all skills that transform a part of your pyhsical damage into damage of an element (infernal blow, static strike etc.), scales off of physical damage. So the physical damage modifiers increase both the physical and the elemental portion of your damage, while elemental modifiers increase only the elemental portion.

I'll check and see what i can find. Thanks dude, big help. Really looking forward to using a new skill.

A simple question:
Why do you use Ice Crash, when Sweep is actually a better skill, especially with Hegemony?

Hey when you were leveling as 2 handed crit staves how did you get a decent staff? Basically how did you make sure you always had a decent dps/crit staff and how do you think is the easiest way to make currency for a hegemony's era?

Also I was thinking of using molten strike and AoF with this build to get huge ignites and maybe try out prolif. Yes I know the less multi will affect the initial hit and the burn, but I might just put it on a HoA because I suspect in a crit build I'll be able to deal a lot of overkill damage. And I would obviously have a setup for single target for bosses.

I was thinking of using a tree like this

I chose Scion because it was in the middle so I could also go into Shadow. With a hege's I wouldn't need all of the extra crit from the right side of the tree which I could then respec out of for more life/armour nodes on the left side. What do you think?