Banners are immovable objects that only the caster can interact with. Assuming perfect Alacrity, you will have four seconds of downtime with your banners.
If you pick up your banners, they will Recharge by 60 seconds. This means that once your banners are on a 60 seconds
Recharge, you can pick them up and recast them instantly. Take advantage of this during downtime between phases or when bosses are
Invulnerable. This will ensure permanent uptime.
Make sure you place your banners close to your stack or between two locations if you know you will move slightly.
There are five types of banners:
In the Discipline trait line, you have a trait called . This trait will increase the effect of banners on you by 100%.
is a specific mechanic that is unique to Berserker. It has a one second cast time to enter and will last for 15 seconds, unless extended. There is no way to manually exit , you have to wait out the timer.
When in , you can access to new burst skills:
can be extended by using rage skills. Each skill extends the duration by a different amount. You can also extend the duration of by using the trait in the Berserker Trait Line.
Let's take a look at your rage skills and see how long they extend by:
Adrenaline is a specific mechanic that is unique to Warrior,
Berserker and
Spellbreaker. You gain adrenaline whenever you strike with an attack.
You gain adrenaline in order to use and your primal burst skills. There are three stages of adrenaline, each requiring 10 adrenaline. You are required to fill up all 30 points of adrenaline in order to enter . After that point, each primal burst skill will cost 10 points of adrenaline. Using a burst skill will use all of your adrenaline, even if the skill misses.
So which primal burst skills will you encounter in this build?
Primal burst skills have a few traits that change their behaviour:
You have a few skills that grant adrenaline:
You have a few traits that grant you additional adrenaline:
The cleave damage output from Condition Banner Berserker is huge and can be a great advantage especially at bosses with adds e.g.
Vale Guardian,
Gorseval,
Sabetha,
Xera,
Mursaat Overseer and
Soulless Horror.
The main reason to cleave is to ensure that you always maintain 25 stacks of as this increases your Condition Damage.
If a boss is about to phase, it is more beneficial to use than auto attacking as the Burning ticks do more DPS before it becomes
Invulnerable.
can be used as a gap closer when doing mechanics or moving during split phases.
Remember to use once the enemy is below 50% health.
You have access to a condition cleanse through . This skill will cleanse two conditions from you but will come at a heavy DPS loss if you use it solely for this purpose.
is a blast finisher and can be used in Smoke fields to blast Stealth.
provides Immobilize and can be used to slow down adds.
Your Heal skill will always be as your rotation partly revolves around this skill. Using will Recharge your and .
and will always be on your utility bar when playing Condition Banner Berserker. These two utilities will buff all 10 squad members and have an almost permanent uptime. Your banners last for 60 seconds and will have a
Recharge of 64 seconds, assuming permanent
Alacrity.
can be used to grant yourself two stacks of Stability. This can be used to avoid getting
Stunned,
Knocked Back or
Knocked Down by certain mechanics. The shockwave from this skill will reflect incoming projectiles and you will need to take care at certain encounters. Rock Guard, a 0.5 second buff from using , will block incoming attacks.
can be used as a Stun Break, grants you maximum adrenaline and causes 300
Breakbar damage.
You have the option to run or :
increases your Condition Duration based on your current
Precision. This trait will help you cap out on
Condition Duration and will be even more effective when running the
Discipline trait line. This is because you will gain additional
Precision through .
causes you to gain + 180 Condition Damage when under the effects of
Fury.
reduces the Recharge of your Sword skills by 20% and increases your
Condition Damage by + 120 when on your Sword Set. This trait also increases your
Expertise by + 120 regardless of weapon.
gives you a 33% chance to cause Bleeding on critical hit and causes your
Bleeding to last 33% longer.
is a stacking buff that increases your Condition Damage by 10 stat points for each stack. There is a maximum of 25 stacks for this buff. You gain by landing a critical hit on your target(s). You can massively increase the amount of stacks you have by cleaving adds during encounters.
causes your Longbow auto attack to inflict Burning and causes your Longbow skills to have 20% reduced
Recharge.
The rotation for this build relies on the lower Cooldown of your
Weapon Swap, from , and the reduced
Cooldown of your and , from .
will improve the effects of banners on you by 100%. This will greatly increase your Power,
Precision,
Ferocity and
Condition Damage.
causes your burst skills to give Swiftness and partially restore your adrenaline. It also causes your burst skills to do 7% more damage.
causes your rage skills to inflict Burning on up to five nearby enemies.
reduces the Cooldown on your Torch skills and also grants you + 120
Condition Damage when you are on your Torch set. Additionally, you gain + 120
Condition Damage regardless of your weapon set.
increases your Power and
Condition Damage by + 300 stat points when you are in . It also decreases your
Toughness by 300 stat points.
causes you to gain a Fire Shield whenever you critically hit an enemy. It also causes
Fire Shields to explode, causing
Burning, when a rage skill or torch skill is used.
Fire Shields that are created by rage skills will detonate immediately. The 15 second
Cooldown on this trait only refers to when gaining a
Fire Shield from a critical hit but not the detonation.
You provide permanent Burning through , , , , , and .
You can provide permanent Bleeding through , , , , , and .
You can provide roughly 50% Cripple uptime through , and .
You can provide roughly 20% Immobilize uptime through .
You can provide some Blind through .
You can give yourself Stability through .
You give yourself Quickness when you enter due to .
You give yourself Fury whenver you use a burst skill due to .
In this encounter, Condition Banner Berserker is far inferior to
Power Banner Berserker due to the low armor of
Vale Guardian and the fast phase times. Only play
Condition Banner Berserker if your group has no other option for the
Red Guardian split.
If you are in an organised group and kill Vale Guardian in the middle then you do not need to worry about your positioning so much as it is fairly easy to cleave the
Seekers. Cleaving the
Seekers will keep up your stacks thereby giving you more
Condition Damage.
If you kill Vale Guardian on a wall then try to cleave the boss and the
Seekers at the same time. You can do this by standing at his side and by aiming your through him to hit the
Seekers behind.
If the timing permits, you can use to block the teleport from .
Place your banners slightly towards the Red Guardian. This will make it easy for you to pick them up at the end of every phase.
You will have time to cast them during each split phase, pick them up and recast them again for the main phase.
As Condition Banner Berserker you will need to go to the
Red Guardian during the split phase. If you have problems with
Seeker control during the split, use to
Immobilize it.
Use to help break the Red Guardian.
There is no reason to skill save during the split phase, so just continue your rotation as normal.
If you have fast split phases then you will want to hold off from using . With fast split phases you might not have back off Cooldown for when you engage
Vale Guardian again.
Power Banner Berserker is stronger at this encounter due to short phase times and higher split damage, however
Condition Banner Berserker is also very usable at
Gorseval.
Try to cleave the expanding orbs and mobs in order to maintain 25 stacks of . Cleaving the orbs is typically your responsibility and is easily done with good positioning.
is such an integral part of maintaining and therefore DPS, you will generally no longer be able to save the Stability granted by to avoid the knockdown from . Have faith in your support.
During the third DPS phase, or "Eggs" will spawn around Gorseval. Try to avoid
Dodging out of the "Eggs" in order to upkeep DPS, because you can simply walk backwards out of them as they spawn. will root you in place, so take care not to get trapped in an egg.
Your banner placement will depend slightly on the way your squad does the split phase. Organised groups will either split their squad in half or into four groups.
If you split into two groups then you should place your banners to the West of Gorseval. This is because both groups will end their split phase there.
If you are splitting four ways, your split phase will be too fast to worry about casting banners. Simply pick up your banners at the end of each main phase and cast them again at the start of the next phase.
If you are running around as a squad to kill all the Charged Souls then you can place your banners slightly behind
Gorseval. This will ensure you will be in range of your banners for at least two
Charged Souls.
You can pick up your banners just as the split phase ends and recast them. This will ensure a high uptime.
As you head back towards Gorseval, you can use as a gap closer. If you use through up you will gain a
Fire Shield. The same applies when moving between
Charged Souls during the split phase.
Fire Shield will give mobs
Burning when you are stuck and can potentially detonate due to .
If your group is struggling with the split phases, remember that you can always use to Immobilize the
Charged Souls.
Save your to help CC. You won't have up for the first Breakbar as you will need to use it to kickstart your rotation.
If your squad is really struggling with CC then you could swap out for .
Continue your rotation during the Breakbar Phase as none of your skills hit fast enough to worry about dying to
Vivid Echo.
The relatively long phases at this fight and large cleave potential for stacks puts Condition Banner Berserker in close contest with
Power Banner Berserker at
Sabetha. Use whatever build you feel comfortable with, but remember that
Condition Banner Berserker brings ranged cleave DPS for greater utility at this encounter.
Keep an eye on Sabetha's health and try not to waste
Cooldowns if she is about to phase. This becomes more important when
Kernan,
Knuckles and
Karde spawn as they will spawn
Invulnerable and therefore destroy any projectiles you use. Prioritize over when Sabetha is close to phasing.
You can easily cleave adds to help provide stacks. This is actually important when Karde spawns as you will need to help cleave down his turrets. Current meta DPS classes provide little ranged cleave, and turrets will put huge pressure on the group, so it is imperative to cleave these with and whenever possible.
You will probably have to deal with a set of cannons as Condition Banner Berserker. Remember, you can leave the cannon early as your conditions will continue to tick damage! You can use to get to and from the launch pads.
Place your banners close to the center of the arena. Pick them up and replace them between the time that Sabetha goes
Invulnerable and
Kernan,
Knuckles, and
Karde spawn. When the phases are long enough that the banners will disappear before phase, recast them between phases.
You lose barely anything by baiting the mechanic, as you can normally attack from range at some point in your rotation. To bait the mechanic you must be the closest person to Sabetha.
If you get a when you are on your Sword set you can use as you walk out of the stack and to get back in. If you are on your Longbow set, delay using until you are close enough that all three projectiles hit again.
Always remember that it is your job to CC the saboteurs with so try to save it. To make your life easier, remember that you can throw beehives in front of the cage to CC the saboteurs for you when Narella spawns. This will let you keep up some DPS on her instead of trying to CC them.
Although strictly speaking you do not need , it will help to maintain Might and
Fury while your subgroup is spread out.
During the Snowstorm phase,
Matthias will create Icy Patches that can, and should, be cleaved through the boss with or , increasing your average stacks of .
Take care with as this skill can reflect Matthias when he uses - his jump attack.
Conditions continue to apply when Matthias uses his , so always continue with your rotation when he uses this attack.
The aim of the Matthias encounter is to keep him as static as possible near the center of the room so this means your banners should also be near the center of the room. If you see
Matthias run off to Narnia, try to pick up your banners and recast them.
You have time during to pick up your banners and recast them. You also have time when Matthias goes
Invulnerable at 40%.
If you do happen to get a mechanic, be it or , you can walk backwards from Matthias to continue attacking and using . When moving back to
Matthias remember to use as a gap closer.
If you are targeted by and are forced to move away from Matthias, you can use if you are on your Sword set to avoid too much DPS downtime. Use to get back to
Matthias once has ended but take care not to leap too early.
Save your to help CC even though you will be self-stunned. Most of the strong DPS classes at this encounter lack CC capability without suffering a noticeable DPS loss, so it is in your best interest to bring CC.
If your squad is really struggling with CC then you could swap out for , although this should be done in a worst-case scenario. does not apply Bleeding and is on a 20 second
Recharge compared to 's 15 second
Recharge. This will severely hinder your ability to do a golem rotation and result in a rather large DPS loss.
Run around, look useful, attack stuff, hit stuff and spam .
You can Immobilize the
Wargs by using .
Although strictly speaking you do not need , it will help to maintain Might and
Fury while your subgroup is spread out.
You can also consider taking as you can pre-stack adrenaline during the pre-event, therefore making less useful.
You can easily cleave adds here, therefore maintaining 25 stacks of . You can move around Xera to position yourself so you can use onto the adds as they spawn. This will not only help to maintain stacks but it will also aid in cleaving down the adds. Take care when cleaving adds that are in a shard AoE field as their
Burning will get converted into
Aegis.
If in the second phase you stay in one place to kill Xera, then try to stand to the side of her so you can cleave shards as well. Again, this will help to maintain stacks and also to remove shard pressure.
Remember to use to help CC when Xera has her
Breakbar up.
Xera gains a flat 80% damage reduction during the
Breakbar, it is in your best interest to self-stun and break
Xera as soon as possible.
Use Longbow for the second island as most likely you will be placed on a button. Using in is ideal. You can use to help blast Might in your field to help boost your DPS classes while they are killing the central shard.
You can actually cast banners on each island and pick them up before you leave. This is will massively help your subgroup clear the island events.
Find out from the Power Boon Chronomancer if you are keeping
Xera in the middle during the first phase. If you are, then you can just place your banners there. If you are moving
Xera try to place your banners between the middle and the location to which you will move her.
The same applies to the second phase, after 50%. Find out where you will be moving Xera and place your banners between the two tanking positions.
During the second phase, you can pick them up as you move between tanking spots and recast them.
Cairn's crystal shard attack, , is reflectable. So make sure not to reflect it with .
You can use to block the teleport from , just as with from Vale Guardian.
This boss is a simple DPS golem so take the time to practise your rotation.
Cairn is basically a static boss so just place your banners somewhere near the center of the platform.
You can easily cleave Jade Scouts here, therefore maintaining 25 stacks of . It'll probably be your job to cleave at least two
Jade Scouts but preferably three.
Just like with Cairn, this boss is practically a DPS golem so take this opportunity to practise your rotation.
Mursaat Overseer is practically static, so just place your banners near the center of the arena.
When it is impossible for another class to take Claim, you can do so with little DPS loss, as you will be able to cleave
Jade Scouts most of the time even while tanking.
Face the boss away from the group and do a golem rotation while claiming the necessary tiles.
You can also consider taking as you can pre-stack adrenaline during the pre-event, therefore making less useful.
If you are going to pre-stack Might with , remember to do it after the boon strip. You can use in your fire field to blast some
Might.
can be used to Immobilize Prides and Greeds, if needed.
Always try to cleave Deimos, Saul and/or the Greeds and Prides. This will help keep your stacks high.
Place your banners near the center of the Arena as Deimos barely moves.
Make sure you pick up your banners as you phase Deimos at 10% health. Recast them immediately when you get down to the last phase.
At the beginning of the fight, you can cleave both Soulless Horror and the wurms with . This will, not only reduce damage from the wurms, but it will also greatly help with your stacking.
Use on the Tormented Dead if your druid is struggling with controlling it.
You can use if you have to move away from Soulless Horror due to bad wall spawns. Because most of your kit is entirely mobile, you should have almost no problem sticking to
Soulless Horror and avoiding walls.
You can use to block most attacks by Soulless Horror. If you can, you can use to block .
Place your banners near the center of the arena, for maximum coverage.
Placing them in the cener of the arena will also make it easier for you to pick them up if you need to move due to bad walls.
Save your to help CC Soulless Horror. You will lose less DPS from the self-stun than forcing the
Condition Mirages to use tools such as .
If your squad is really struggling with CC then you could swap out for . Try to avoid this as the longer 20 second Recharge on will interfere with your ability to do a golem rotation.
In pug groups, you will most likely be taking the first green. Always double check with your Power Boon Chronomancer to see which green you need to do! In more organized groups, that still play double
Heal Druid, it is possible for both
Heal Druids and the
Power Boon Chronomancer to take greens. This allows you to DPS greed on
Dhuum without dealing with mechanics.
You are able to use at the Dhuum encounter as you can gain full adreanline during the pre-event. This will allow you to use to provide
Fury and/or to ressurect
Downed allies in clutch moments.
Use in your rotation on the Enforcers as they take extra direct damage.
Keep at eye on the Reaper by the gate. If spiders start to build up, use to cleave them. This is mainly important after the first . Just aim through Dhuum onto the spiders, this will mean that you can cleave them without losing any DPS.
Seeing as you aren't going to be in charge of boon strip, due to multiple Condition Renegades, it doesn't really matter which green you take.
Remember that is a condition cleanse, so use it to cleanse the Torment after the Soul Split or .
Use for extra movement during mechanics and going to greens. This will help you maximise your DPS uptime.
You can also use when moving out to the seals during the final 10%.
Ask the Power Boon Chronomancer where you will be tanking
Dhuum. Try to place your banners between the two tanking spots for each phase between the .
If you are taking the first green you will need to place your banners before taking your second green as Dhuum will have already spawned. You can pick up your banners when you return and recast them again.
Before any of your greens, you can pick up you banners and recast them. This will ensure a very high, if not permanent, uptime for your banners.
You can use to block many mechanics in this encounter. However, due to its integral role in the Condition Banner Berserker rotation due to extending , you should lean towards walking out of the mechanics.
At Nikare you can use to block and . If you are targeted by , you can move to place it down but continue to attack by using .
At Kenut you can use to block . This attack by
Kenut hits multiple times and you may still take damage from it even if you block with .
You can also block , the small AoEs that spawn which apply Torment.
You can block with . If your Heal Druid is struggling with kiting this attack you can always do it as you can still DPS from range when you need to move out.
Save your so you can CC Kenut or
Nikare during . You will lose less DPS from the self-stun than the
Condition Mirages will from using tools like .
Place your banners immediately when you start the encounter. You can pick them up and recast them as you move platform.
Make sure you place them towards the side of the platform that you will leave from. If you do this, you can pick them up just before you glide to the next platform.
Due to the ability for the Kenut subgroup to take advantage of to steal
Quickness from the
Heal Druid to proc
Confusion,
Kenut tends to phase faster than
Nikare.
It will generally be your job to determine which platform needs help and to adjust accordingly, although it is easiest to move from the last platform early.
Power Banner Berserker is superior to
Condition Banner Berserker here due to the short phases at
Qadim and the necessity for large amounts of CC for add phases and on slower boss burn phases.
If your CC is slow at Qadim or you need more CC for the creatures you can always take instead of , although this will heavily influence your rotation and therefore, DPS.
Take care when you use as it will put you very close to your target. All the enemies at the Qadim encounter have proximity based aggro mechanics and your close proximity may cause aggro issues.
Remember that you can't do any damage to Qadim when his
Breakbar is up. The faster you break him the faster you can go back to DPS. This is why
Power Banner Berserker is the superior build at
Qadim.
Try to cleave all the three adds that spawn at the Destroyer. These deal heavy damage and their
Breakbar should be broken and adds killed as soon as possible.
You will need to kite one of the Wyverns as
Condition Banner Berserker. Most attacks can be sidestepped or avoided by moving inside the
Wyvern's hitbox.
Kiting a Wyvern is easy if you know their attack pattern.
2 x or Breakbar Phase .
If you are kiting the Matriarch you need to make sure that she is not facing the
Patriarch when she uses . This will push the
Patriarch group off the platform and will result in a wipe.
You can simply move out of the way when a Wyvern uses . The same applies for and .
is actually two attacks. It looks like a swipe and then a stab into the ground.
You will generally need to block or Dodge the first but you can simply walk inside the hitbox of the
Wyvern to avoid the second hit of . In most cases, you can walk through the
Matriarch hitbox during the first swipe animation to avoid it, although this is riskier.
After the Wyvern uses to escape they may use . They will only use this skill if no one is close to them when they move, so make sure to stay close to the boss during the transition. Being hit by will almost certainly result in a
Down.
Cast your banners just before the Hydra spawns. You can pick them up and recast them if the
Hydra teleports. You can then pick them up again as the
Hydra dies.
Recast your banners as you get back to Qadim after you've dealt with the Pyres. Always pick them up again at the end of each phase. Repeat this for the following phases.
If you have fast phases, you can use your banners before you deal with the Pyres. Cast them just in front of Qadim.
Make sure to place your banners next to the Patriarch before going to
Matriarch to ensure a faster burn and therefore phase transition. You will generally have time to set your banners down again during the
Matriarch burn and pick them up before arriving at
Qadim one last time.
Don't use your banners once you've killed the Matriarch and
Patriarch. Wait until you have finished the jumping puzzle and have arrived at
Qadim.
You offer very limited CC at this encounter and you might find it preferable to play Power Banner Berserker.
You will need to take the Tornados to avoid the one-shot attack at Sabir.
Banner placement is extremely simple here. Place them at the start of each phase and pick them up at the end.
During the final phase, you will probably need to use them a few times.
You only have access to :(
Just continue your normal rotation during the Breakbar Phases.
When you have to move away, after each Breakbar Phase, you can use to get back to
Sabir quickly.
If your CC is slow at Qadim the P or you need more CC for the Pylons you can always take instead of .
If you time it correctly, you can use to block the Knockback from
Qadim the P after the Pylons are broken. If you don't trust it, just
Dodge.
You can do ranged DPS when Qadim the P moves to destroy the Pylons at 40%, 30% and 20%.
Condition Banner Berserker is a safe option, especially below 20%, as you will take less damage from the
Retaliation that
Qadim the P gets.
You can use to help provide some soft CC on the Anomalies, assuming your
Heal Druid needs some help.
Pick up your banners at the end of each phase, just before you get turned into a fireball. This way you can instantly cast them at the start of each phase.