BASIC marauder- questions about Armor and + %damage

Well i am at work and cannot view trees on this internet version :(.

I have been reading through the two very popular threads regarding Tankiest and the Basic Melee thread. My post is really a two part question.

1) What are the very basic skill points we need? I have learned with this game that the character needs to focus on defense. In my opinion, the focus for marauders needs to be...

Increased life %
Life on hit/life after kill
Life regeneration
Elemental resist
(and this is where my part 2 question comes into play)...
Increased Armor
Increased Damage

I cannot see a tree right now, so i do not know what else i am missing. I know I recently made a tree focusing on endurance points.

So question 2)

Why do forums posters or marauder sometimes say to NOT invest in increased armor or increased damage (the +4% and +6% choice get attacked as useless)? I do not understand why a player would ignore or attack the increase armor and increase damage.

THIS THREAD IS ABOUT A VERY BASIC MARAUDER START/BASE/FOUNDATION....

without a foucs yet on Blood Magic or Resolute Technique or Unwavering Stance
without a focus or discussion on sword vs mace vs axe
without a focus on going north or south for certain points in the tree

random thought, ADHD kicking in: So by foucsing in endurance, does a player not need increased armor??



(im loving this game, the tree is so interesting and im in love with theorycrafting. there are so many options and opinions, so of course one can feel overwhelmed)

bump...

over 50 views and not 1 helpful marauder?!

1) Without knowing your weapon or goal that seems fine for SC. Keystones are usually weapon/build dependent.

2) Why? Not sure, perhaps due to the build, it's generally %physical dmg increase, I guess those builds didn't rely on pure physical damage and Armour, look closer at their build and see why this is, possibly relying on endurance charges. I know this guide does [Newbie Friendly] MARAUDER MELEE BUILD v2.02c and it's on the first page.

Let me try and explain it somewhat from my point of view.

First off, about damage.

Your damage will be the quality of your 2h weapon. I have finished all acts on all difficulties without a single +%damage node and i felt overpowered most of the way, damagewise.

Yes, i had luck to have several great weapons.

About armor nodes, i can also give you the reasoning there, since i currently do not have a single armor node in my build.

When you start having problems with armor, you put on grace and determination auras and voilla, problem solved.

Get used to roll endurance charges and you will not need armor nodes.


Also, unless you are running bow/wand/fast attacks or, god forbid, blood magic build, you do not need life on hit/life after kill. You need life leech.

In closed beta I went with a templar. In open beta I thought I would try out the Marauder and instantly felt it was "easier". Even without stellar weapons when you start out you do a fair bit of damage, and can quickly destroy most enemies. As I've levelled up I still seem to go through areas relatively quickly with minimal resistance.

The only one that caused me any problems so far (I had to resurrect 3 times) was Merieval. Again that was easier than when I was a Templar, and only because I didnt' really have any cold resistances when I got there.

So really adding damage early on is as Balsha pointed out not really required.

For the armour.... I've seen some go for armour. Initially I had a couple of nodes go into armour but I have since taken them off. I guess it could come down to person choice and equipment, but generally with life on hit or life leech, it's rare that I even come close to dying, and taking those armour nodes would only delay in getting to some of the better life nodes. One argument that I've seen is that 8% increase in HP is going to be there all the time, 8% increase in armour may not count for anything if you're not getting physically hit.