PoE 3.25 Earthshatter Berserker Build

Grinding Gear Games has made significant changes in Patch 3.25 that affect almost all melee builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur.

Earthshatter, in particular, received a massive 96% damage buff, making it a prime choice for those who are looking to build around this slam skill.

Not only that, but the Berserker ascendancy class also got a few notable changes. So, if you are looking for a build that is competent enough to clear even T17 maps, then look no further!

This is our ultimate build guide for the Earthshatter Berserker in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur League!

Basics

So, what changes did GGG implement for Earthshatter exactly? Well, before we answer that question, we must first discuss what it actually is.

Earthshatter is a melee slam attack skill in Path of Exile that prompts you to slam the ground, thus creating multiple fissures that branch out in the process. Once these fissures have traveled their maximum distance, they turn into damaging spikes that hit enemies hard with area damage.

What’s interesting about Earthshatter is that if you slam the ground and use a warcry near the area where the spikes come out, it will cause them to shatter, making nearby monsters take huge amounts of damage as a result.

Speaking of warcries, GGG has made sweeping changes to Warcry Skills in Patch 3.25 as well. There are three specific warcries you will use on this build, namely Rallying Cry, Intimidating Cry, and Infernal Cry.

Rallying Cry now grants attack damage equal to 3% of the damage of your main hand weapon per 5 power (up to a maximum of 30).

Intimidating Cry now grants a 3% increased movement speed per 5 Power. You gain up to 18% increased movement speed at maximum power, allowing you to move around the map more quickly without relying on Leap Slam.>

How about Infernal Cry? In Patch 3.25, this warcry no longer covers enemies in Ash. To compensate, it now grants up to 20% of physical damage as extra fire damage.

Now, it is cumbersome to have to activate all of these warcries yourself, right? But, do not worry, some of them are automated with the help of Autoexertion Support. This is just a renamed “Call to Arms” Support from the previous league, but besides the name change, it also received one significant adjustment.

Warcry Skills supported by Autoexertion no longer share their cooldowns, meaning, they are triggered immediately after they are available to be used again.

Sadly, only two of the Warcry Skills just mentioned can be automated, so you’d have to leave one to be cast manually. To somehow make the lone warcry feel less clunky to use, you are going to link it to Urgent Orders Support.

Due to the extensive changes in Patch 3.25, our version of the Earthshatter Berserker is no longer viable as a league starter. That is because you need to have access to a few mana reservation efficiency mods on gear.

Still, this build is capable of eliminating any monster you encounter in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur without breaking a sweat!

Anyway, look for the following modifiers on your gear to improve your total damage:

• Added Physical Damage
• % Increased Physical Damage
• % Increased Area Damage
• % Increased Attack Speed
• % Chance to Deal Double Damage

Playstyle

The way the Earthshatter Berserker is played is now a bit different in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. This is because a couple of your warcries are now triggered by Autoexertion Support, so you only really need to cast one yourself.

This build is actually pretty mobile because you will be using the Leap Slam as your main travel skill. Utilize this to scour the area for groups of monsters and then do the main rotation as detailed above.

Since you have Blood and Sand, stick to Sand Stance for mapping. Only change to Blood Stance if you need more single-target damage, mostly when you are fighting any tough monster or pinnacle boss in PoE.

You are not done yet! Keep a close eye on your Rage meter and use Berserk for a significant boost to your damage when you have enough of the said resource. Additionally, activate Blood Rage to increase your attack speed, making your Earthshatter slams feel less clunky to use.

As you can see, unlike any other builds in Path of Exile, this one uses multiple buttons as part of the rotation. Even though it can be quite daunting at first, you will get the hang of it soon enough! This build is great if you want a more dynamic, active, and fun playstyle!

Ascendancy

The Berserker ascendancy class received a few noteworthy adjustments in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur League.

Let’s start with Crave the Slaughter. In Patch 3.25, this notable ascendancy passive now grants a 1% increased attack speed per point of Rage. This is actually a pretty good adjustment, especially considering that Rage no longer gives an attack speed boost by itself.

Rite of Ruin does not triple the effects of Rage anymore. Instead, it now grants a 50% increased Rage effect, thus granting even more damage per point of the said resource.

For War Bringer, it no longer causes exerted attacks to deal 50% more attack damage. Rather, this notable ascendancy passive exerts twice as many attacks now compared to before. To illustrate, Rallying Cry only amplifies the damage of your next five attacks. With War Bringer, that number is doubled to 10 attacks!

Aspect of Carnage is the very definition of “simple yet effective.” This notable ascendancy passive skill grants you 40% “more” damage at the cost of 10% increased damage taken. The reason why the word “more” is in quotes is that such a modifier in PoE is calculated multiplicatively rather than additively. In other words, this node by itself increases your total damage immensely! Aspect of the Carnage is the only node for this build that has not received any changes in Patch 3.25.

Later down the line, if you have amassed some PoE currency, we highly encourage you to purchase the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with “Unbreakable” as the matching modifier. This improves your survivability by not only doubling the armor value of your equipped body armor, but reducing the chaos damage you take from hits as well.

When you factor all of these together, you will find that the Earthshatter Berserker is actually a pretty good mapper that is capable of dispatching hordes of monsters with ease!

Gear

The gear for the Earthshatter Berserker now requires more investment in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur League. This is because of the plethora of balancing changes GGG has implemented in Patch 3.25.

Having said that, while you can certainly make Earthshatter work on a modest budget, we feel that the extra investment is worth it, particularly if you want to have the power to decimate your foes in the late game.

Weapon

The Earthshatter Berserker utilizes a two-handed mace that you can find in one of the curio displays in Heist. That weapon is none other than the Impact Force Propagator. This thing is a pretty awesome two-handed mace because of its implicit modifier, which empowers your Warcry Skills to exert one more attack.

For example, Rallying Cry only exerts your next five attacks, right? But with the Impact Force Propagator, that number is raised to six! In fact, you can even take things a step further by using a Tempering Orb for a chance to increase the number of exerted attacks by one more!

To craft this thing, get an ilvl 85+ Impact Force Propagator and spam it with Deafening Essence of Contempt (Added Physical Damage) until you get the hybrid % increased physical damage/+ accuracy rating prefix. Next, lock the prefixes and use Harvest Augment Speed to get the T1/T2 attack speed.

After that, lock the prefix again and then use a Veiled Orb. Now, this may result in a prefix or a suffix and the next steps will depend on what you are going to get.>

If you have obtained a veiled prefix, unveil it and select any of the physical damage mods that may pop up. On the other hand, if you get a suffix, bench-craft “% Increased Damage per Power Charge” and head to Jun. After unveiling, choose either the double damage mod or attack speed mod, whichever comes up.

Go to the Crafting Bench and add “22% Increased Attack Speed While a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby.” At this point, you still have an open affix slot. You can either fill it up with an Exalted Orb or use a Warlord’s Exalted Orb to get an influenced modifier.

If you follow the steps outlined above, you should have something like these:

Crafting in Path of Exile is confusing, especially when it comes to the different terminologies. Don’t fret, we have a dedicated crafting guide just for you! It contains all the information you need to dabble in crafting, complete with step-by-step instructions for some of the most popular crafted items in the game!

Body Armor

A good self-crafted body armor goes a long way for this build. Grab an ilvl 86+ Royal Plate so you can roll T1 “% Additional Physical Damage Reduction.”

Since you will need a few mana reservation mods on gear, the body armor is definitely one of the pieces that you can get it from. That said, spam the Royal Plate with the Deafening Essence of Loathing to guarantee the suffix modifier just mentioned. Do this until you get other suitable mods, including flat armor, increased armor, additional physical damage reduction, and some resistances to boot.

The beauty of a rare piece of gear in Path of Exile is that you can add two implicit modifiers via certain Eldritch Currencies. Having said that, spam the armor with Eldritch Ichor until you get “11% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage” and Eldritch Ember for “+1% to All Maximum Elemental Resistances.”

You could also try and elevate the maximum resistance mod by using some Orb of Conflict. You might have to do it a number of times until you achieve +2%.

Helmet

Our version of the Earthshatter Berserker had previously equipped the Echoes of Creation unique helmet. However, because of the various changes in Patch 3.25, this piece of gear is no longer viable. Instead, it is replaced with a self-crafted helmet with some mana reservation mods.

To craft the helmet, get an ilvl 85+ Giantslayer Helmet and spam it with the Deafening Essence of Loathing until you are satisfied with the mods. Just leave a prefix open so that you can “10% Increased Area of Effect, +1 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems” from the Crafting Bench.

In case you are wondering, the veiled modifier from Korell, specifically the one that states: “8% of Physical Damage Taken as Fire Damage,” can no longer roll on helmets. GGG has completely removed the said mod in Patch 3.25. It is sad to see that it is now gone, but take solace in the fact that you gain multiplicative bonuses from item quality in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion.

Anyway, when you are satisfied with the explicit modifiers, you can turn your attention to the implicits. Spam the helmet with Grand Eldritch Ichors to get another mana reservation efficiency mod. For the other implicit modifier, use Grand Eldritch Embers until you get “24% Reduced Mana Cost of Attacks.”

Once you have enough currency, you can get yourself some Echoes of Creation. This unique helmet allows you to use socketed warcry skills an additional time before going on cooldown.

But, the main reason for using the Echoes of Creation is that it boosts the damage of your exerted attacks by up to 15%. Only use this if your character is strong enough to survive this helmet’s downside.

Gloves

The gloves are one of the pieces of gear on this build that you can use to rectify any issues you may have with your elemental resistances, attributes, and chaos resistance. Whatever mods you need, leave a prefix open so that you can bench-craft “43% Increased Damage While Leeching.”

Anyway, the implicit modifiers that you need are “Hits Have % Chance to Ignore Enemy Physical Damage Reduction” or “Exerted Attacks Deal % Increased Damage” via the Eldritch Ichor and “% Increased Attack Speed” from the Eldritch Ember.

Boots

Refer to our crafting guide so that you can learn how to craft a good pair of Onslaught Boots. For this build, in particular, get an ilvl 85+ Leviathan Greaves and spam it with Deafening Essence of Torment (Shock Avoidance). The rest of the crafting steps can be found in our guide.

Now, if you are wondering why you need the suffix, “% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked,” you will find out in the “Jewels” section of the build guide.

Anyway, spam the boots with Grand Eldritch Ichors to obtain the mod “9% Increased Life Regeneration Rate” and Grand Eldritch Embers for “41% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked.”

Since the melee totems like Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief have been removed from the game completely, the Dawnstrider unique boots are no longer viable for the Earthshatter Berserker in Patch 3.25.

Amulet

After wearing all of the pieces of gear mentioned above, you might still be starved for some attributes. Fortunately, there are some attribute amulets you can use as a crafting base. Grab any ilvl 82+ amulet and use Harvest Reforge Physical to obtain the “+1 to Level of All Physical Skill Gems” prefix along with some attributes, resistances, or life. Bench-craft “Non-Channelling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost” to finish the amulet.

With the Eternal Damnation nerfed in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur League, it is no longer a viable option for the Earthshatter Berserker. If you don’t know, when you wear this unique amulet, you are no longer able to generate Endurance Charges, Frenzy Charges, and Power Charges as they are all set to zero.

Fortunately, you can still mitigate elemental damage simply by stacking Endurance Charges. That’s because a single Endurance Charge now reduces the elemental damage you take by 4%.

The Defiance of Destiny could also be of help to you, particularly when you want to improve your chances of survival. However, you should know that the unique effect of this amulet, where you gain 25-35% of your missing unreserved life before being hit by the enemy, has now decreased to just 10-20%. It is up to you whether or not you’re still going to use it after the said nerf.

To ensure that you have enough mana to work with, anoint any of these amulets with Charisma (Opalescent OIl, 2x Golden Oils) for that 16% increased mana reservation efficiency of skills.

Rings

You can use two Amethyst Rings for that chaos resistance implicit mod. However, one of them should be Warlord-influenced so that you can acquire the mod, “Curse Enemies with Vulnerability on Hit.”

It is quite easy to obtain the influenced modifier. All you have to do is get an ilvl 80+ Amethyst Ring and use Harvest Reforge Caster.

With the ring equipped, you can apply Vulnerability whenever you hit enemies with your slam attacks. This curse makes affected enemies take 15% increased physical damage.

If your chaos resistance is already capped due to your other pieces of gear, you can replace the Amethyst Ring with the Vermillion Ring instead.

Belt

Even though you can certainly craft and use a Stygian Vise early on, you should go for the Ryslatha’s Coil as soon as possible. This unique belt is just so amazing for the Earthshatter Berserker mainly because of its unique effect.

To put it simply, Ryslatha’s Coil enhances the damage of Earthshatter by increasing its damage range. Aim to purchase one with 40% more maximum physical attack damage and 30% less minimum physical attack damage for best results.

Flasks

• Granite Flask
• Basalt Flask
• Amethyst Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Life Flask/Lion’s Roar/Fulgurite Tincture

The combination of Granite Flask and Basalt Flask gives you a significant increase in your armor, which is your main defensive layer. That is why their inclusion in your flask setup is mandatory.

If you wear the Eternal Damnation amulet, you must have your chaos resistance sorted out. Hence, you will use the Amethyst Flask to get a considerable boost to chaos resistance when it is active.

Quicksilver Flask is a great way to improve your map-clearing speed. If you are wondering what it does, it grants an increase in your movement speed when used.

For the fifth flask slot, you can go for a Life Flask to give you a means of recovering life quickly or the Lion’s Roar for more physical damage.

If you are not aware, Tinctures have finally returned to the game in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur, albeit with some modifications. The only thing you need to concern yourself with, assuming that you are going to use one, is that Tinctures now have cooldowns and they kick in the moment their effects wear off.

That being said, the Fulgurite Tincture seems to be a rather good option for the Earthshatter Berserker. That is because it grants you the ability to inflict Shock on enemies so long as you are using a melee weapon.

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• Regenerate 3% of Life per Second (Bench-craft)
• Corrupted Blood Immunity (Life Flask)

Jewels

The Earthshatter Berserker, luckily, does not require any specific jewels to function. Be that as it may, there are some that you can get to improve the various aspects of the build, including offense and defense.

Begin by getting your hands on a well-rolled Watcher’s Eye with any of the following modifiers:

• Determination
  • % Additional Physical Damage Reduction
  • + to Armour
  • You Take % Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes
• Pride
  • % Chance to Deal Double Damage
  • % Chance to Impale Enemies on Hit
  • % Increased Physical Damage
  • Your Hits Intimidate Enemies for 4 Seconds

If you can recall, the self-crafted pair of Onslaught Boots have “% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked” modifiers, right? Well, there is a reason for that and it is because of the Stormshroud.

You see, the Stormshroud is a unique jewel in PoE that makes modifiers to chance to avoid being shocked also apply to all elemental ailments. In other words, when you have this jewel equipped along with the Onslaught Boots, you will achieve full immunity against chill, freeze, shock, and ignite, thus heavily improving your survivability!

Since you are playing a melee build, you can get a ton of value by adding a Lethal Pride Timeless Jewel as well. Get one that grants many “20% Increased Physical Damage” and “8% Increased Warcry Buff Effect” nodes when inserted into the jewel socket adjacent to Savagery and Vigour on the passive tree.

Don’t forget to insert at least one Large Cluster Jewel into the mix. Get a Large Cluster Jewel (Mace and Staff Damage) and use Harvest Reforge Attack until you get Aggressive Defence, Overlord, and one random notable passive skill. The last one should be situated at the center so that you can save a couple of skill points.

Here is a brief rundown of the notable passive skills mentioned above:

• Overlord
  • 30% Increased Damage with Maces, Sceptres, or Staves
  • Melee Hits with Maces, Sceptres, or Staves Fortify for 6 seconds
• Aggressive Defence
  • Fortifying Hits Grant 60% Increased Fortification
  • 30% Increased Fortification Duration
  • 20% Increased Damage with Attack Skills While Fortified

Even if you only put a single Large Cluster Jewel on your passive tree, you can still add a couple of Medium Cluster Jewels (Exerted Attacks) as well. On the first medium cluster, use Harvest Reforge Attack until you get Cry Wolf and Warning Call.

For the second Medium Cluster Jewel, use Harvest Reforge Attack again to acquire Cry Wolf and Rattling Bellow. Here are their effects:

• Cry Wolf
  • Exerted Attacks Deal 30% Increased Damage
  • 20% Increased Total Power Counted by Warcries>
• Warning Call
  • Gain 25% Increased Armour per 5 Power for 8 Seconds When you Warcry, up to a Maximum of 100%
• Rattling Bellow
  • Exerted Attacks Have an 8% Chance to Deal Double Damage
  • +20 to Strength

The last one, Emperor’s Mastery, can be deemed as a jewel that is nice to have, but is by no means required by the build. This increases your attributes, life, and global defenses, which are all mods that can make you a bit tankier and able to survive better.

Gems

Welcome to the gems section of the build guide! The skill and support gems that will be highlighted here have been carefully selected to make the build work. Only change the gems if you absolutely know what you are doing.

Body Armor

• Earthshatter
• Awakened Melee Physical Damage
• Awakened Brutality
• Volatility Support
• Impale Support
• Fist of War Support

Earthshatter is your main attack skill for this build. When used, you slam the ground with force, causing fissures to branch out. After traveling their max distance, damaging spikes will pop out of the fissures to deal damage to the enemies within the vicinity.

In Patch 3.25, Earthshatter saw a massive improvement in damage. More specifically, its effectiveness of base and added damage is now set to 136% (from 125%) at gem level 1 and scales to 314% (from 200%) at the max level.

Volatility Support is pretty interesting because it acts similarly to Ryslatha’s Coil. And the best part? They can actually work together to increase Earthshatter’s damage manifold!

Awakened Brutality and Awakened Melee Physical Damage just add to the damage total of the said attack skill gem.

Impale Support grants you a way to inflict a debuff on enemies that deal physical damage over time. This works even better if you allocate nodes that boost the effect of Impale.>

The last gem slot is for the Fist of War Support. This “Ancestrally Boosts” your Earthshatter skill to make it deal 98% more damage at gem level 20!

Weapon

• Determination
• Pride
• Blood and Sand
• Herald of Purity
• War Banner
• Enlighten Support (lvl 4)

These are all of the auras you will activate on this character, with Determination and Pride being the most important ones. Determination grants a significant boost to your armor, while Pride provides more oomph to Earthshatter, making it more devastating.

It should be said that Determination now provides only 90-1,026 flat armor as opposed to 179-2,051 previously. Although this nerf seems too huge on the surface, this is somewhat mitigated by increasing the item quality of your gear. That is why you better use Armourer’s Scraps ASAP!

Blood and Sand allows you to change stances at any time. Use Sand Stance for mapping for that increased area of effect. For single-target damage, switch to Blood Stance.

Herald of Purity and War Banner are just complementary gems for the build. The former gives you a small boost to your physical damage. The latter, on the other hand, improves damage and accuracy, though you can only get these bonuses if you place the banner on the ground.

Helmet

• Rallying Cry
• Intimidating Cry
• Autoexertion Support
• Inspiration Support

Call to Arms Support now has a new name: Autoexertion! This support gem still triggers the Warcry Skills it is linked to. However, these warcries no longer share cooldowns, which means that Autoexertion can use them immediately when they’re available.

Our only gripe with Autoexertion is that it no longer causes the Warcry Cry Skills it supports to grant buffs and charges to you and your allies. For this reason, Infernal Cry is left out of this particular setup so that you can still take advantage of that extra fire damage.

Gloves

• Molten Shell (lvl 10)
• Cast When Damage Taken Support (lvl 1)
• Leap Slam
• Faster Attacks Support

Leap Slam and Faster Attacks Support is a common combo in melee builds in Path of Exile. The said support gem just makes Leap Slam a lot smoother to use.

Molten Shell and CWDT are another typical combo used in the game. Whenever you take damage – whether by your own hands with Echoes of Creation equipped or via the enemy’s attacks, you gain a sizable increase in your armor for a short period of time. This process is automated thanks to Cast When Damage Taken Support.

Take note that your Leap Slam and Faster Attacks Support should not be linked with Molten Shell and CWDT. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use the movement skill.

Boots

• Blood Rage
• Berserk
• Infernal Cry
• Urgent Orders

Melee totems like Ancestral Protector and Ancestral Warchief have now been removed from the game. Even though their removal can be felt, the good news is that you can now use other skill gems to compensate.

Remember Infernal Cry? We specifically did not add it with Autoexertion Support because you’d want to gain that extra fire damage. So, instead of Autoexertion, you are going to link Infernal Cry with Urgent Orders.

Urgent Orders is nothing special. However, it does give Infernal Cry a significant boost in warcry speed, making it feel less clunky to use. The only thing you need to worry about here is that you have to keep an eye on Infernal Cry’s duration. This is because you are going to activate it manually.

If you have been living under a rock when Patch 3.25 was revealed, GGG has implemented a massive overhaul to how Rage works in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur.

Rage, as a resource, no longer grants bonuses to attack speed and movement speed. Rather, you now gain even more damage, which is further improved by the newly tweaked Berserk skill.

Berserk now amplifies the effect of Rage by 59% at gem level 20. You can gain Rage comfortably by taking the new Rage nodes on the passive tree.

Tattoos

Despite the re-introduction of Tinctures in Patch 3.25, you can still gain benefits from Tattoos. That being said, here are the Tattoos that we recommend for the Earthshatter Berserker:

• Tattoo of the Kitava Blood Drinker
  • 0.5% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life>
• Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior
  • 5% Increased Physical Damage
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warmonger
  • 5% Increased Melee Damage
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warcaller
  • 8% Increased Warcry Cooldown Recovery Rate
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Shaman
  • 0.3% Life Regeneration per Second

Passive Tree

POB

Earthshatter Berserker

Final Thoughts

Our version of the Earthshatter Berserker has received a massive overhaul. This is due to the changes implemented by GGG in Patch 3.25.

Thanks to the new Autoexertion Support gem, a couple of your Warcry Skills no longer share cooldowns with each other. Instead, they are now triggered automatically whenever they are available for use.>

Rage has also been reworked in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. It no longer grants bonuses to attack speed and movement speed. But, what you are getting is even more attack damage, which is further amplified by the Berserker’s ascendancy nodes.

Even though this build is no longer viable as a league starter, we feel that the Earthshatter Berserker is able to shatter enemies with incredibly powerful slams!

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Heavily improved Earthshatter skill gem makes it more devastating than ever

+One of the best mappers due to sheer damage and area coverage

+Uses plenty of buttons which results in more fun and dynamic gameplay

+Incredibly tanky

+Now performs even better in Patch 3.25

CONS

-A bit slower in mapping compared to bow builds

-Requires some crafting for endgame weapon

-No longer a league starter