Northern Rage Berserker guide for all Anomaly levels (v0.81)

Overview

v0.81 update – now with both Sun & Moon and Jeopardy versions

Update notes

June 29: Pics added for each version

June 19: only the videos were updated for 0.81

pics coming later

Video

Both videos are standalone guides with a table of contents in the description.

Sun and Moon:

Jeopardy:

Jeopardy Gear

Jeopardy skills

Jeopardy Mastery

Mastery 200 and Mastery 400 are rough guidelines, and not fully optimized. The Mastery setups did perform very well in testing, however.

Sun & Moon gear

Sun & Moon skills

Sun & Moon Mastery

Mastery 200 and Mastery 400 are rough guidelines, and not fully optimized. The Mastery setups did perform very well in testing, however.

Mechanics and gameplay

We’ll start with the mechanics of the 3 piece bonus:

• 1. Glacial Roll is our damaging Frost Skill
• 2. When you perform a roll, it drops 4-9 “ice spikes”, depending on reach.
• 3. Each one of those spikes deal Glacial Roll’s damage to every enemy it hits, and each spike also applies its damage as a Frostbound.
• 4. When Rage Release triggers (this build is designed to trigger a Rage Release each time an ice spike deals damage), Frostbound triggers as well, and the damage dealt in #3 is dealt again – this damage shows up as white numbers instead of blue. Frostbound is also removed from the monster.
• 5. Example: Assume each ice spike deals 100 damage.
  • You glacial roll
  • The first ice spike deals 100 damage to a monster
  • Frostbound for 100 damage is applied
  • Rage Release triggers and deals its damage
  • Frostbound triggers and deals 100 damage, and Frostbound is removed from the monster
  • The 2nd ice spike deals 100 damage to the same monster
  • Frostbound for 100 damage is applied
  • Repeat..

So the 3 piece bonus will make each ice spike deal its damage twice to all enemies it hits.

The 4 piece set bonus expands on the 3pc bonus:
<Pic deleted>

The damage reduction part is straightforward. Since we’re triggering rage releases anytime we’re in combat, the DR is almost always active.

But “Frostbound now stacks damage infinitely”… what that means is that instead of removing Frostbound from the monster in #4 above, each Frostbound application “sticks” to the monster.

Replaying the example with the 4 piece bonus in effect:

• You glacial roll
• The first ice spike deals 100 damage
• Frostbound for 100 damage is applied
• Rage Release triggers and deals its damage
• Frostbound triggers and deals 100 damage, and Frostbound is not removed from the monster
• The 2nd ice spike deals 100 damage to the same monster
• Frostbound for 100 damage is applied (total Frostbound now 200)
• Rage Release triggers and deals its damage
• Frostbound triggers and deals 200 damage
• The 3rd ice spike deals 100 damage to the same monster
• Frostbound for 100 damage is applied (total Frostbound now 300)
• Repeat…

The Frostbound damage just keeps increasing each time a new ice spike hits a monster, so you get a higher damage multiplier the more spikes that hit a monster.

Frost Winds do pitiful damage, but they serve an important purpose – triggering Rage Release.

Each Glacial Roll activation has a chance to create a single Frost Winds tornado that will pester enemies for a few seconds. The Frost Winds tornadoes created by Glacial Roll will trigger a Rage Release each time they deal damage.

Since they trigger a Rage Release each time they deal damage, they will also trigger Frostbound on any monsters around you. So even though the Frost Winds do pitiful damage on their own, the Frostbounds they trigger are significant.

Taking damage does generate rage, which results in more Rage Releases triggering. I have not taken the time to measure the amount of rage generated when I take damage.

My sense is that the Rage Releases created this way are “free” extra Frostbound triggers, and that this results in a modest amount of extra damage. So I’m leaving the points in the passive that generates more rage when taking damage. For now.

• *. Glacial Roll drops 4-9 ice spikes along its path, each with a relatively small radius. Multiple spikes can hit the same enemy, and the resulting Rage Releases and Frostbounds can hit the same enemy multiple times. So Glacial Roll positioning and route planning has a very high payoff (and skillcap).