[3.5] Gruthkull's farming berserker (videos attached)

Introduction

Its purposes are:
• farming the eternal Labyrinth as safely as possible
• to look cool
• to feel good (not to cause arthritis due to overuse of your finger articulations)
• to be Shaper capable
• must be inexpensive

Main Idea
The main item of the build is Gruthkul’s Pelt, as it produces an increase to character size (this is how you look down on anyone else in town, he he!). It grants almost as much life as a Belly of the Beast, plus it gets you some cold resistance, but most importantly, it greatly increases your physical damage. From this, we deduce that pure physical damage will be the most effective one, as it also is not mitigated by any bosses’ elemental resistances.
Next, the weapon that delivers the biggest punch is the Starforge, coupled with a brutality support gem. After that, the support gem that multiplies damage the most is Damage on full life (which I don’t consider reliable, because after a boss hits you, you will not be at full life), and Bloodlust support. As bloodlust prevents the main skill from inflicting bleed, we get a totem with bleed support to inflict bleeding for us.
Because Gruthkul’s Pelt disables all spells, we are free to use Blood Magic to increase our life, and we won’t have to worry about auras, curses, reservations, golems etc. Makes the build very simple to use.
For the main skill, we use Cyclone, because it can be buffed by area supports, and because it allows us to pseudo-phase through enemies, very important in the Azurite Mine. Also, if you have weapon microtransactions, they look very well while cicloning.

Pro’s
• farms the eternal Labyrinth as safely as possible because of more than 11% life regeneration/second and instant 25% maximum life regained on war cry (and you can war cry every ~2 seconds)
• Looks cool. In fact, I sometimes got complimented by my trading partners while in my hideout. They say something like, ,,Man, you are big”. It pleases me so much, I might even start going to the gym again!
• Feels good and simple, similar to blade vortex and orb of winter builds, but you can leech a lot. Also, it is safe from porcupines, because you put your totems to kill them.
• Is Shaper viable, as with average gear you can get >7000 life (8000 with good gear) and up to 1 million pure physical damage, plus leeching and regeneration. Fortify acts as separate 25% damage received, similar to 25% extra life, so the build reaches nearly 10 000 effective life while fortified.
• Has a lot of spare sockets, so you can level up extra gems to level 20, then super-corrupt them in Atzoatl temple and sell them for a king’s ransom.
• Can use war cries as instant health potions (can heal ~2000 hp every ~2 seconds without flasks)
• Blinds enemies
• unstunnable while cicloning
• Deals pure physical damage, meaning you don’t have to worry about enemy resistances.
• Perfect for delving!


Con’s
• Rather expensive because of Starforge (costs ~2 exalted orbs to buy), the next weapon in line is Kondo’s Pride (dirt cheap for 1 alchemy or chaos orb), but you lose up to half of your damage.
• Can’t do physical reflect maps
• No leech/no regeneration maps are very struggling and should be rerolled, but you can still do them by relying on your war cry
• You can get caught in your own nice-looking animation, so you lose attention and then get one-shot killed by nasty bosses or Syndicate gangs. Be careful of the fight, not on the scenery! This is not a game for day-dreamers!!!

Path of Building link

https://pastebin.com/Ldek5JpC


My gear with gems included


The build can be further boosted with better jewels and items.
I suggest you level with the main link in the Gruthkul’s Pelt body armor so that you can switch weapons as you level. I got it 4 linked, then 5 linked with Kondo’s Pride until I did all white maps, and then I got the fully lined Starforge from another character that I had.
If you do not want to get into red maps, just a 5 link Gruthkul’s Pelt body armor coupled with a Kondo’s Pride should be more than enough.

Passive skill tree

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAECAAHnBS0HdQmWCbsOPBDwFCAUTRRxGJEaVRuqIVUhkCW8JyAs-y5TNZI26DkOOlI64TwtPfxAoEd-SdVN41BHWGNZ_F4TXz9f0GEhYxdlTWebaGVul3Ttdit2rHrvfNl9-4CKgTqCB4Nfg8yE2YTvhVKGYIdqiO2KIpBsl3mezaZXpzCpJ6mUqfqtja4-tz68n702vqfApsEHw2jEWMaqxq7G2M9-02_Xfti92WHZfNo_2sHbT9w937_gw-Hv5FHqEOoY6wnvDvJF8lrynPNv8932SPcy9033vvhf-Ov8S_4K_o8=?accountName=katmos&characterName=Khorne_Betrayer

Playstyle

Simple: put down the totems, war cry, and leap on the enemy to fortify, then cyclone them to death!

How to get rich with this build
1. Farm the Eternal Labyrinth (get good enchantments to sell and perhaps even offer carry services, see poe.lab for examples)
2. Use the spare sockets to level up popular gems to level 20, then corrupt them for higher levels and sell them for exalted orbs!
3. Do master content (delve, incursions etc)

Ascendancy
We choose Berserker because it produces the greatest melee damage increase. Recommended order:
1. War bringer
2. Aspect of Carnage
3. Crave the Slaughter
4. Rite of Ruin

Bandits
Help Oak

Pantheon
Switch major gods according to situation.
Minor god: Soul of Ryslatha for life flask recovery, and put the anti-bleed mod on it to get bleed immunity in the labyrinth and Atziri trio fight.

Levelling
For skills, start with cleave, then sweep, then cyclone.
For weapons, grab any swords you come across or look up in poe.wiki for uniques. Settle down for a Kondo’s Pride until you have a Starforge. I happened to get it from another character.
Try to get the 5 or 6 link in the body armor, so that you will be able to change weapons while leveling. Gruthkul’s Pelt can be equipped from as low as level 38.
The 2 abyssal socketed Bubonic trail is not mandatory, you can get on fine with a 1 abyssal socket variant (mine dropped in a Lich encounter, and I ain’t gonna sell it-no boy!)

What to look for when buying jewels or items:
1. Life
2. Resistances
3. Increased physical damage/added flat physical damage.
4. Increased attack speed

Videos (coming soon)
Please set Youtube default video quality at a minimum 720p to enjoy a good viewing.

Temporal Incursion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFEtO-RgyNQ

Level 70 delve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXrsrNoYwzQ&feature=youtu.be

General map run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPbo-GU1akI&feature=youtu.be

Uber Izaro fight

Character view in town (you are bigger than anyone else)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG57ZgVx_fw&feature=youtu.be

Immortal Syndicate laboratory run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjCiCo_L_Pg&feature=youtu.be

Atziri map run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m6IpbXxAeM&feature=youtu.be


Final notes
In Delve league I was able to sustain T13 maps, while in Betrayal I was unable to sustain T4, using the very same strategies. The default map drop rate plummeted so much, that I was unable to sustain yellow maps and had to buy them. That is why the videos are from low-level maps. However, looking at the character’s stats and max damage, it fits the usual requirements for running not only red maps but also Guardians and Shaper. I have never fought the Uber Elder myself (as I couldn’t ever sustain that high map level), so I can’t tell if the build is capable of the fight. I’m sure that very experienced players may be able to win that fight, and I would be very delighted if someone could show a video of that fight (could I be lucky enough to attract the attention of a streamer?)

Updated guide with new videos.

I managed to defeat a level 75 Catarina, and it took me 4 portals in total, at level 87.

I also tried to do a level 83 Catarina carry, but it was far too much. She's stronger than a guardian. I kept dying, and not from her, but from that damn statue of hers. The build can take one direct hit, but not 2 in quick succession.

As I was disconnected after the second death, this post is the only way to say to my former party member that I am truly sorry that I wasted 2 of his portals. please forgive me, but a level 83 Mastermind is too much.

Thank you for submitting your build and nice made guide.I also played very similar build this league and tried to optimize as much as I can. The problems with build are ;

Firstly, its a Berserker.Berserker give okay damage with huge drawbacks.

Aspect of the Carnage
It gives 40% more damage which is like a strong 7th link on any skill . Its good because 40% is a lot but its nothing unique and it comes with 10% increased damage taken.This 10% is huge because it is multiplicative with other sources.
I checked your build, you have -38% chaos res. It that fled will casually one shot you all day long. Any desecrated ground will melt you.

Crave the Slaughter and Rite of Ruin
This two berserker nodes are like buffed Blood Rage with much bigger degens you constantly need to fight againsts and build around it.

War Bringer
I liked warcry skills while playing my character but they are so god damn weak imo and War Bringer doesnt do much about it.

Secondly, its a Melee build.You need to get inside the monsters to kill them.Build is a Resolute technique build and not being able to kill monsters instantly at melee range means they will fight back.

Thirdly, its a Cyclone build and cyclone sucks balls and it recently got nerfed doesnt have +4 to radius at lvl 21.This actually decreases our AoE radius by a factor of 2 not 1. Cyclone damage also sucks balls people like me play it for the feel but after aoe nerf it feels so shit to play I couldnt take it. Maybe it still works for Slayer but I dont expect much.

Problems with the way you build it;
You enabled that PoB shock at configurations but its doing actually nothing for your build.Even if you were able to shock bosses it would have 1-3% increased damage taken not 50% like pob thinks.
For a cyclone build you havent taken any aoe nodes on tree I guess thats because its for farming uber lab.
You have taken too many leech nodes and they are I think being wasted.
Using Bloodlust gem will do nothing while general mapping except for the moments you put down your totems but I guess it also works for izaro moments where you actually need ?

Here is the pastebin for my build I tried out https://pastebin.com/eyJGEAGU
TLDR;
Berserker sucks , melee sucks , cyclone sucks. Honorable mention , Warcrys suck. Resolute Technique in 2019 sucks.

Hopefully Mathil will make a build soon and prove me wrong.But untill then or untill berserker is reworked I wont be playing that ascendency

You are mostly correct.
However, there are a couple of things that you must bear in mind:
1 your build is far more expensive for only ~300k more damage and resists.
2 my build is designed for running labs primarily and for aesthetics, thus Gruthkull's pelt is the core item (so no Kaon's Heart or any other body armor)
3 my build is theoretically guardian and shaper capable, but it is not intended to run all difficult encounters the game has intended. Run them once for curiosity/challenges, then get back to farming in order to get enough currency for other builds.
4 this build is unique in its own way. It is not meta, nor it was ever designed to be a 15 million dps build / damage immune build / uber elder farmer etc. I am no streamer, I do not make money out of it, I just play for fun. I consider 1 million dps to be enough for endgame. Anything more is just luxury.
5 the, ,, shock" is not intended for an 18 million health shaper, but for a 4 million Uber Izaro. Thus, if I hit it with 1 million dps, I get a 25% increase in damage from shock, and then I progressively increase damage because the way perma-shocking progressively increases damage.

More than 4400 views.
It's quite a surprise that many people are interested in playing berserker. This ascendancy is the least favorite of them all, according to the recent official post!
Still, I hope that the viewers like the looks of the build, and the playstyle.

Nice build. I'm trying it myself and have been having fun with it as I've never played any type of Marauder before. Level 60 atm and have been flying through the areas with no trouble. Can't wait to see how it does later on once I have all my gear on, specifically starforge, and can start getting some uber lab farms in. Also yes the chest piece is very aesthetically pleasing. Being large is a plus lol.

I'm glad you like it. The build shines in delves and in synthesis encounters, as you deal damage while moving.

*don't know how to delete*

You should at least put in the title - Not end game / not meta / not for new players.
I specked according to this and only now when it doesn't work i read the comments. Gruthkull's for aesthetics, common man.....