Borderlands Berserker Builds: Melee and Explosive

Borderlands is an enjoyable blend of FPS and RPG. There are four character classes in the game and each one has a specific skills tree. You can earn skill points during the action as you gain experience and develop your character abilities. The skill point cap is 50 so you won’t be able to unlock every single skill available (in fact you'll only have 45 to spend). You can find out more about the game in our Borderlands review.

In this article we’ll take a look at the Berserker, Brick. He is a mean tank of a character with a flair for melee combat. While any character can wield any weapon in the game they do have specialities. To find out more about the weapons check out our Borderlands Weapon Guide. Here we’ll suggest two builds for the Berserker, one which maximises his melee skills and one which develops his explosive side.

Before you can unlock anything else you’ll need to develop your basic Berserk ability. This allows you to go ape and you can use the Aim and Fire buttons to unleash a devastating array of blows on your unfortunate enemies. While in Berserk you’ll gain resistance to damage and regenerate health. It lasts for a few seconds and the cool down before you can use it again is 60 seconds.

Brick is at his best when he gets up close and personal. We’ll start with the Brawler Tree:

• First Tier – Iron Fist – This increases the damage you do with each strike (+6% for each skill point up to a maximum of 30%).
• First Tier – Endless Rage – This increases the time that your Berserk ability lasts (+10% for each skill point up to a maximum of 50%).
• Second Tier – Heavy Handed – Every enemy you kill increases your melee damage for a few seconds (+12% for each skill point up to a maximum of 60%).
• Third Tier – Short Fuse – This decreases your Berserk cool down period so you can use it again more quickly (reduces cool down by 6 seconds for each skill point up to a maximum of 30 seconds).
• Fourth Tier – Blood Sport – Killing enemies in Berserk regenerates your health (+2% for each skill point up to a maximum of 10%).

From the Tank Tree you should go for:

• First Tier – Hardened – This increases your maximum health (+12% for each skill point up to a maximum of 60%).
• First Tier – Safeguard – This increases the strength of your shield (+8% for each skill point up to a maximum of 40%).
• Second Tier – Bash – This gives your attacks a chance of dazing the enemy making them easier to finish off (+10% chance to daze for each skill point up to a maximum of 50%).
• Second Tier – Juggernaut – Killing an enemy creates resistance to damage for a few seconds (+10% for each skill point up to a maximum of 50%).

Brick is also very fond of explosives and if you want to use the rocket launcher as your main weapon this is the build for you. We’ll start with the Blaster Tree:

• First Tier – Endowed – This increases your explosive damage (+3% for each skill point up to a maximum of 15%).
• First Tier – Rapid Reload -This decreases your reload rate with any weapon (+4% Reload Speed and +6% Recoil Reduction for each skill point).
• Second Tier – Revenge – Killing an enemy increases the damage you do with any weapon for a few seconds (+10% for each skill point up to a maximum of 50%).
• Second Tier – Wide Load – Increases the number of rockets you can have in your Rocket Launcher (+1 rocket for each skill point up to a maximum of 5).
• Third Tier – Liquidate – Dealing out explosive damage to an enemy decreases your Berserk cool down (starting at 1 second cool down reduction per hit up to 5 at maximum).
• Third Tier – Cast Iron – Increases your resistance to explosive damage (+8% damage resistance for each skill point up to a maximum of 40%).
• Fourth Tier – Master Blaster – Killing an enemy increases your fire rate with any weapon and more importantly causes you to regenerate rockets for a few seconds (+12% Fire Rate and 2 rockets regenerated per minute to start with up to a maximum of +60% Fire Rate and 10 rockets regenerated per minute).

From the Tank Tree you should take:

• First Tier – Hardened – This increases your maximum health (+12% for each skill point up to a maximum of 60%).
• First Tier – Safeguard – This increases the strength of your shield (+8% for each skill point up to a maximum of 40%).