Wrath of the Berserker (Cooldown 120 seconds, 50 Fury):
For the next 15 seconds, increase your: Critical hit chance by 10%,
attack speed by 25%, dodge chance by 20%, and movement speed by 20%.
Many characters will have a skill that exists to be a dedicated ‘panic button’. This is true across many games. These ‘panic button’ skills (or powers or abilities or whatever) generally serve to do one or both of two things- drastically increase survival chances, and drastically increase damage output. Barbarians, being berserkers, don’t have a ‘panic button’, they have an ‘angry button’- and this is it. Where Earthquake is just powerful, and Call of the Ancients is an amazing summon for a melee class, Wrath of the Berserker will save you from death- and give you a strong shot at dishing it back out to those who would have dealt it to you. Pretty much the only thing the basic form doesn’t do that you would want from it is increase your weapon damage.
Arreat’s Wail (Cooldown 120 seconds, 50 Fury):
Deal 430% weapon damage and knockback to all enemies within 12 yards.
For the next 15 seconds, increase your: Critical hit chance by 10%,
attack speed by 25%, dodge chance by 20%, and movement speed by 20%.
Arreat’s Wail makes this skill even more amazing in emergency situations by not only spreading out the enemies that have doubtless piled onto you in order to try and lay you flat, but also inflicting more than respectable damage on all of them. This is perhaps the most direct rune of the group that applies to this skill, and just like this skill, it is amazing.
Insanity (Cooldown 120 seconds, 50 Fury): For
the next 15 seconds, increase your: Weapon damage by 100%, critical hit
chance by 10%, attack speed by 25%, dodge chance by 20%, and movement
speed by 20%.
Insanity is, frankly, just that. Remember how the only thing it doesn’t do is increase your weapon damage? Insanity causes the skill to double your weapon damage, thereby boosting all your other skills as well as your most basic attacks. Have fun destroying everything for 15 seconds, okay?
Slaughter (Cooldown 120 seconds, 50 Fury):
For the next 15 seconds, increase your: Critical hit chance by 10%,
attack speed by 25%, dodge chance by 20%, and movement speed by 20%.
Any enemy you kill while Slaughter is active explodes for 155% weapon
damage to all enemies within 15 yards.
Do you like critical hits? Do you like blood? Do you like it when killing things makes more things die? Meet Slaughter. The big brother of the Rupture rune for Cleave, things get especially silly when Rupture and Slaughter combine with Cleave and Wrath of the Berserker, giving you fifteen seconds of nothing standing next to anything else surviving. It is, however, very messy.
Striding Giant (Cooldown 120 seconds, 50 Fury):
For the next 15 seconds, increase your: Critical hit chance by 10%,
attack speed by 25%, dodge chance by 60%, and movement speed by 20%.
Striding Giant is your survival benefit for Wrath of the Berserker, rendering you nigh-untouchable for the duration of your rampage. Since you were probably in trouble when you hit your angry button, this rune is a good choice, allowing you to return the favor in spades while laughing at all the missed attacks that won’t be hitting you.
Thrive on Chaos (Cooldown 120 seconds, 50 Fury):
For the next 15 seconds, increase your: Critical hit chance by 10%,
attack speed by 25%, dodge chance by 20%, and movement speed by 20%.
For every 25 Fury you generate while Thriving on Chaos, extend the
duration by 1 second.
Thrive on Chaos is, as its name might imply, pretty much the craziest rune available for Wrath of the Berserker. While it doesn’t make the Wrath itself any better, it does something that nobody can deny is beautiful for the Barbarian- it increases the duration of the Wrath, and does it more the more the Barbarian smashes things during said Wrath. You remember all those Fury-generating runes that are mostly useless a lot of the time? Dread Bomb isn’t the only thing that can take terrible, terrible advantage of them.
