PoE 3.25 Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker Build

Why Choose the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker?

Many people deemed Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur as the “melee league” due to the vast rework that GGG has done in Patch 3.25. For instance, the company has made substantial changes to Rage – both in terms of how it is gained, as well as the bonuses it provides.

But more importantly, melee skill gems got major buffs across the board. While some enjoy significant upgrades like Earthshatter and Volcanic Fissure, there are those that got buffed only slightly, albeit very fun to use nonetheless.

In this build guide, we are going to cover the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker. This PoE build is best suited for those who like to play fast melee mappers. So, without delay, let’s get started!

Why Choose the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker?

The build’s name is a mouthful, but bear with us here because it is actually pretty enjoyable, especially if you are into PoE melee builds.

Rage Vortex of Berserking (RVoB) in PoE is a Transfigured Gem that creates a “Ragestorm” that attaches to your character when used. This is unlike the original version, where you create a swirling Ragestorm that moves forward.

Once activated, the Ragestorm continues to reduce your Rage at an increasing rate. Fortunately, because of the changes implemented in PoE 3.25, you can consistently have Rage up just by attacking enemies.

In case you were not aware, PoE Rage is a lot different now compared to previous leagues. First of all, it no longer improves your attack speed and movement speed per point of Rage. Instead, it now gives you 1% “more” damage, meaning, it is calculated multiplicatively. In other words, you get better raw power in exchange for a considerably slower attack speed.

Aside from that, you now only have 30 points of Rage by default (as opposed to 50 points previously). This is not a cause for concern, though, because there are new small and big nodes on the passive three that can give you an additional 30 points, so long as you are willing to invest in them.

It is important to discuss the Rage rework because of how the said resource plays a crucial role in the success of the build. Remember, PoE Rage Vortex of Berserking consumes Rage at a rapid rate. So, with how quickly you can gain this resource, you do not have to worry about the Ragestorm’s uptime at all.

What’s more, we are going to loop you in on a secret. For some reason, you can actually “reset” the speed of decay when Rage Vortex of Berserking is active. To do this, you simply have to cast the skill again. This applies only to the Transfigured Gem because Rage Vortex PoE works in a slightly different way.

With all of that said, the Berserker ascendancy is the best one for the job mainly because of the notable passives that have something to do with Rage. Crave the Slaughter is an incredible ascendancy node that gives you attack speed.

This PoE melee build can achieve a 100% critical strike chance due, in large part, to Flawless Savagery. Besides that, this node allows you to gain a boost in physical damage if you have landed a critical hit on the enemy in the past several seconds.

If the attack speed granted by Crave the Slaughter is not enough, then take Blitz as well. This notable ascendancy passive skill does reduce your critical strike chance, but in exchange, you get up to 40% more attack speed via Blitz Charges.

The Aspect of the Carnage needs no explanation. You get a substantial damage enhancement at the cost of 10% increased damage taken. That is a fair compromise given that you can also attain max block chance with the right PoE gear.

Here is the ideal order of notable ascendancy passive skills to take for the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker:

1. Crave the Slaughter
2. Flawless Savagery
3. Blitz
4. Aspect of Carnage

Even though it is not mandatory, we still advise you to save up on Divine Orbs to purchase the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with “Rite of Ruin” as the matching modifier. What this does is it basically increases the effect of Rage by 50%!

To understand how powerful it is, let’s say that you have the base 30 points of Rage and Crave the Slaughter allocated. You also use a level 20 Berserk to gain a 59% increased Rage effect. With Rite of Ruin, you effectively gain an enormous 62% more damage, as well as a 62% increase in attack speed!

If you cannot afford these jewels yet, you could choose Rite of Ruin over Blitz for the time being. Do you want to buy the Forbidden Jewels but you do not have the currency to do so? Do not delay, head to our PoE Store now to enjoy discounted bundles!

Because this Rage Vortex of Berserking build deals physical damage, it is only right to have these modifiers on your gear if you want to improve its combat prowess:

• Increased Physical Damage
• Added Physical Damage
• Flat Sources of Damage
• + to Critical Strike Multiplier
• Melee Critical Strike Multiplier
• Increased Attack Speed
• Chance to Deal Double Damage
• Increased Melee Damage
• Increased Area Damage
• Increased Critical Strike Chance
• Especially with Blitz allocated

Playstyle

Whatever you do, always use Ambush to instantly teleport yourself to your intended target. Doing so “exerts” your next attack, granting considerable bonuses to crit chance and critical strike multiplier.

This PoE Berserker build moves fast thanks to Phase Run. Aside from a movement speed boost, Phase Run provides 30% more physical damage as well. The damage increase actually does not go away when it is activated by Automation Support, so you get to take advantage of it all the time!

Use Berserk whenever you encounter monsters that are difficult to defeat. These enemies are abundant in T17 maps, so you might as well utilize the buff often. Thankfully, you will link Berserk with Second Wind Support to allow you to use it twice before it goes on cooldown.

As for the stances, go for Sand Stance for the most part to greatly increase the coverage of RVoB. You can switch to Blood Stance if you are fighting bosses or when you are in enclosed spaces.

Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker Gear Recommendations

This particular Path of Exile Berserker build can run even with budget gear. However, it gets even more comfortable to play when you have the PoE Currency to invest in the recommended items.

While the vast majority of items typically have their prices drop as the league progresses, there are some on PoE Trade that may still cost more. Chief among them are the Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame jewels (Rite of Ruin) because of how famous melee builds in PoE are in Patch 3.25.

In addition, this build uses quite a lot of unique items, so addressing elemental resistance is one of your primary objectives when it comes to gearing.

Weapon

The Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker deals huge amounts of physical damage. Therefore, you can take things a step further by also investing in items that improve your chance to impale enemies on hit.

There is no better one-handed weapon for the job than the Paradoxica. This may roll several different veiled modifiers, but the one you are looking for is “25% Chance to Impale Enemies on Hit with Attacks.” The constant pressure on the enemies via the Ragestorm you create will ensure that they get impaled quite frequently as a result.

In case you do not know, Impale in PoE is a debuff that causes affected enemies to take reflected physical damage. It “records” about 10% physical damage of the hit that inflicted the said debuff. Initiating subsequent attacks on the affected enemy will deal the recorded amount of damage until Impale’s duration is removed (after they get hit five times).

You can scale Impale damage by increasing the debuff’s effect.

Shield

Despite the PoE Berserker ascendancy’s distinction of being an offensive powerhouse, it can actually be built as a tank if you equip him with the right items for defense. The Svalinn is a unique shield in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur that makes a 90% chance to block attacks and spells quite achievable.

In addition, Svalinn has a unique effect, where it triggers socketed elemental spells after a successful block. For this build, you have Sigil of Power, which makes enemies deal less damage to you when they are in the spell’s area of effect.

Body Armor

Fortify is another form of damage mitigation you can take advantage of in Path of Exile. To get a hold of that buff, you must craft body armor and use Eldritch Ichors until you get “Melee Hits Have a % Chance to Fortify.” Do not be fooled by the low percentage because you can easily gain fortification stacks due to how quickly you hit enemies with Rage Vortex of Berserking.

The body armor is one the only pieces of gear on this build that is not a unique item. Therefore, utilize it to resolve any issues you may have with elemental and chaos resistance, as well as attributes like DEX and STR.

Helmet

It is without exaggeration that you can attain upwards of 700% critical strike multiplier on the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker. The Abyssus is definitely one of the items responsible for that to happen. This is a unique helmet that can have up to 125% melee crit multiplier, provided that you are able to snag one with the perfect roll.

Although the Abyssus is the ideal helmet to use here, it does come with a huge downside in that you take 40-50% increased physical damage from your foes. To make it a bit bearable, obtain the Abyssus with as close to 40% as possible.

Gloves

Now, you could run out of Rage if you somehow forgot to reactivate the Poe Rage Vortex of Berserking skill every so often. In case you do not want to deal with that, you can wear the Admiral’s Arrogance.

Admiral’s Arrogance is one of the unique items that were introduced in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion. This is pretty insane considering that it has a powerful effect that enables you to gain the maximum amount of Rage on hit.

Boots

We always advocate that every player in Path of Exile should do whatever they can to achieve full elemental ailment immunity. This applies to all PoE builds without exception. Just imagine getting frozen in a T17 map with monsters eager to kill you at a moment’s notice!

Anyway, you can go to our ultimate crafting guide to learn the steps on how to craft the Onslaught Boots. There is a slight difference, though, in that you will use the Deafening Essence of Torment to gain 60% Shock Avoidance.

The boots can also roll a “40% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked” by spamming them with Grand Eldritch Embers. The 100% Shock Avoidance is necessary because of the unique jewel you will use. This mystery jewel will be discussed later in this PoE melee build guide.

Amulet

The choice of helmet for this PoE Berserker build enhances your critical strike multiplier considerably. While that is good and all, wait until you see the amulet!

Marylene’s Fallacy provides a significant increase in your critical strike multiplier straight-up. This is not without downsides, however, because this item reduces your ability to land devastating hits as well.

To maximize the effects of this amulet, you must lean heavily on items that improve crit chance wherever possible. Flawless Savagery aids you in that, but also getting this modifier from other sources is highly recommended.

Since you are using Svalinn as your shield, anointing Marylene’s Fallacy with “Safeguard” just makes sense. This notable passive skill grants spell block chance and the ability to recover some energy shield, which is handy for scaling Frost Shield’s defenses.

Rings

Without Purity of Elements, sorting out your elemental resistances can be a chore. Due to the fact that your equipment consists mostly of unique items, you only have two rings to address any problems that you may have, including low resistances, attributes, and so on.

That said, use Harvest Reforge Fire/Cold/Lightning depending on the elemental resistance that you have not capped to 75% yet. Furthermore, if you need a boost in attributes, spam the Essence of Rage (STR), Essence of Sorrow (DEX), or Essence of Spite (INT).

On both of your rings, leave one prefix open so that you can put “Non-Channeling Skills Have a -7 to Total Mana Cost” from the Crafting Bench. This particular mod prevents you from worrying about mana when utilizing Rage Vortex of Berserking.

Belt

You do not have any problems with damage anymore after wearing the above-mentioned items. At this point, investing in PoE items solely for the purpose of increasing damage is just excessive. Why not spend your PoE 3.25 Currency to improve your defenses?

Well, Ynda’s Stand is quite useful for the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker. This belt allows you to gain Ward equal to 50% of the armor and evasion values on your equipped body armor. It does not stop there, however, because you can improve that effect to 60% by using Tempering Catalysts.

When crafting the body armor that you’re going to wear, make sure that you get armor/evasion-based gear like the Conquest Lamellar to get the most out of Ynda’s Stand.

Flasks

• Diamond Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Bismuth Flask
• Divine Life Flask
• Progenesis (Defense) OR Oriath’s End (Offense)

Flask Mods

• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 60% Increased Armor (of the Armadillo)
• Immunity to Corrupted Blood (on Life Flask)
• Gain 3 Charges When You Are Hit by the Enemy (Flagellant, prefix)

Jewels

If there is any jewel that you need to get your hands on immediately in Path of Exile, it would be the Stormshroud. This unique jewel causes modifiers that improve Shock avoidance to also apply to all elemental ailments. The boots that you have crafted earlier will let you achieve full immunity provided that you have the Stormshroud inserted into one of your jewel sockets.

The Watcher’s Eye, specifically with modifiers that are enabled when you have Pride and Precision active, is definitely a worthy inclusion. For the Pride mod, go for increased physical damage or a chance to deal double damage.

Svalinn gives a small amount of Ward. But, did you know that you can enhance that in a way? Well, you do that by getting a Large Cluster Jewel and using Harvest Reforge Defense until you get Veteran Defender.

Veteran Defender is a cluster jewel-only notable passive skill that increases elemental resistance and attributes. Its main attraction, though, is that it increases the native defenses of your equipped shield, which includes Armor and Ward from Svalinn.

Take note that Veteran Defender can only roll from a Large Cluster Jewel with “12% Increased Attack Damage While Holding a Shield” as the base.

Tattoos

• Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior
  • 5% Increased Global Physical Damage
• Tattoo of the Kitava Blood Drinker
  • 0.5% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warmonger
  • 5% Increased Melee Damage

Skill Gems Setup

Body Armor

• Rage Vortex of Berserking
• Awakened Melee Physical Damage
• Awakened Brutality
• Impale Support
• Pulverise Support
• Awakened Increased Area of Effect

Helmet

• Ambush
• Berserk
• Lifetap
• Second Wind Support

Gloves

• Precision
• Arrogance Support
• Pride
• Flesh and Stone

Boots

• Phase Run
• Steelskin
• Automation
• Shield Charge

Weapon

• Blood and Sand
• Tempest Shield
• Blood Rage

Shield

• Frost Bomb
• Sigil of Power
• Frost Shield

Pantheons

• Major God: Soul of Solaris
• Minor God: Soul of Abberrath

Passive Skill Tree

There are a couple of keystone passives that greatly improve the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker’s survivability. The first is Unwavering Stance, which makes you immune to stun at the cost of not being able to evade attacks.

The second is Iron Reflexes. Because your boots and body armor have some evasion rating on them, you can take this keystone to convert all of that to armor. Evasion is useless here anyway because of Unwavering Stance, so changing that to armor makes perfect sense.

As far as Masteries for this build are concerned, you can take these:

• Block Mastery
  • +2% to Maximum Chance to Block Attack Damage
  • +1% Chance to Block Spell Damage per 5% Chance to Block Attack Damage
• Rage Mastery
  • +7 to Maximum Rage, Inherent Loss of Rage is 20% Faster
  • Nearby Enemies Are Intimidated While You Have Rage
• Impale Mastery
  • Impale Damage Dealt to Enemies Impaled by You Ignores Enemy Physical Damage Reduction
• Sword Mastery
  • 120% Increased Critical Strike Chance with Swords, -20% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Swords

Tips and Strategies

• Don’t Use Berserk Early On: The Rage Vortex of Berserking depletes your Rage at an accelerating pace when it is active. If your Rage generation cannot keep up, it is probably because of Berserk. Unless you can sustain Rage more consistently, only utilize Berserk when absolutely necessary.
• Make a Crafted Sword: Paradoxica has some very good modifiers, but you can actually replace it with a crafted Jewelled Foil with chance to Impale and even more critical strike multiplier. The Impale chance is a veiled modifier, so you may need to craft metamods in the process.
• Refresh Your Primary Skill: The rate of Rage depletion caused by having Rage Vortex of Berserking active can be “reset” just by using the skill again. Do this every 20 to 30 seconds or so depending on how quickly your Rage gets drained.
• Improve Impale Effect: The damage of Impale is calculated from 10% of the damage of the hit that inflicted the debuff. If you want to scale its damage beyond that, you can take some nodes on the passive tree that grant “Increased Impale Effect,” such as Merciless Skewering and Savage Skewering.
• Take Defy Pain: If you are planning to rock T17 maps with this PoE melee build, you might find it challenging to survive, especially if you have Aspect of the Carnage allocated. In that case, you can swap Aspect of the Carnage for Defy Pain for extra armor and improved life recovery from leech.

POB

Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker

Final Thoughts

Do you want a melee build in PoE that can blast through maps immediately upon entering the area? Then the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker is recommended! Although its name is a mouthful, this character is no joke, particularly when it comes to clear speed.

Whether you are fighting the formidable uber bosses or the crazy monsters from heavily juiced maps, our version of the Rage Vortex of Berserking build is capable of handling them with only minor tweaks needed depending on the content you want to run.

While the gear needed for this build to work is relatively affordable, why stifle yourself from greatness? Head to our RPGStash PoE Store today and get amazing items, such as the Mageblood, Headhunter, and so much more!

So, are you going to play the Rage Vortex of Berserking Berserker in PoE 3.25? If so, do not forget to share your experiences with it down in the comments section below! Highlight the things that you like about it, such as how powerful it is as a mapper, as well as its capabilities when fighting bosses.

PROS

+Primary skill covers a wide area, allowing you to hit all enemies on the screen

+Our version of this Rage Vortex build is tankier due to Svalinn and other defensive mechanics

+Consistent Rage generation thanks to the combination of ascendancy nodes and passive skills

CONS

-Elemental resistance can be hard to cap to 75%

-Gearing is a bit limited due to the reliance on certain unique items

-Clunky when used as a league starter