Tips for some efficient HC leveling?

I'd been running a tanky molten strike marauder in Beyond, until I lost him in Cruel to an atrociously balanced Elreon defend mission (as my luck had it, this was 40 minutes before the 1.2.1 patch). I rerolled, chose to keep the same class and build, and painfully leveled my char back to 37.

Basically, I'm looking for suggestions as to item/gem setups, builds, and eventually areas that could help speed up the leveling process a bit (without sacrificing too much bulk), since at the moment the usual grinding locations are taking longer to clear than I'd like. Ideally, I wouldn't want to spend more than 10-15 chaos total, though.


Passive tree, if you need it:
https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgEA9kiMzz38WGPG2PIvpKy8n-8OJy_jn18_fNlyqfcyu-2RzlcN0iFqHqgY7tkGOXnAGlVkozboAeenMJ7N3B0YkVBHFCCgtPMG5FH7qjpSMn4=


Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

You have almost no dmg-nodes? I would have dropped the shield-nodes in the dualist area, and take them later when you get to merciless.

You can also go groundslam, or something with more AoE, and switch to molten strike later.

Maybe someting like this?

https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgEA9kiMzz38WGPG2PIvpKy8n-8OJy_jn18_oLTzBuRR-6ooKptqZ5s8LZf-tz7Grv4K2L1-vcT2bBb8SyfthxmexSE0YMS0L1HmrKocpxjXU6VyqXzZ

"

Maybe someting like this?

https://www.poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgEA9kiMzz38WGPG2PIvpKy8n-8OJy_jn18_oLTzBuRR-6ooKptqZ5s8LZf-tz7Grv4K2L1-vcT2bBb8SyfthxmexSE0YMS0L1HmrKocpxjXU6VyqXzZ

The marauder I lost was the first HC character I'd rolled, so I was focusing on HP/block nodes to avoid unexpected RIP's (which obviously didn't do me much good). Otherwise, the idea was to reach the point blank keystone.

I don't have nearly enough respec points to replicate that tree (and I'm not willing to dig into regrets). I might drop those shield nodes if they aren't necessary, though, and spec into a damage node or two. Thanks.

You don't need defense besides resistances until merc, you need life and dps. From level 1 to 55 or so focus on trying to get life, res, and DPS. The faster you can dish out the dps the faster you will level. If you are melee there are plenty of decent uniques for weapons and if very poor you can use the phys dmg recipe (phys belt/wetstone/weapon) + quality and you will be good as long as you upgrade your base item often. If you are in the area grab the templar burn nodes, searing bond, and increased burn support. This set up does excellent dps and a +1 or +2 fire gem weapon is easy to find as a bonus. Get that dps up! You should be able to kill almost everything as soon as you bump into it.

Beyond mechanic is very unforgiving to tanky chars with low dps. If your dps sucks avoid spawning them at all costs.

I would hold off on block until Merciless or the end of Cruel earliest. Get your pathways started, life, any resist or attributes you want for leveling (you can respec later if you don't need them), and offensive nodes (marauder has tons in that area, attack speed and damage helps a lot early on to level fast).

The issue with block is that it takes a lot of points, and each node itself isn't a big help. When you have all of them, they are tremendously powerful,
but early on you don't have the ability to get them without sacrificing too much life or offense. You will need some damage to get through the game, so you can't go full tank from the beginning. Attack speed and a few powerful damage nodes will go a long way, so you'll want them.

I would suggest going 2H at least for most of normal, unless you try Searing Bond, then grab a shield. There are a lot of powerful and cheap 2H uniques. So you just grab a few offensive nodes and a lot of life. Use Enduring Cry and Decoy Totem. That is enough for Normal in almost any case. Then you can decide from there what you want to do. If you can get a good 1H,
then you can switch over whenever.

Regardless though, when you do go with a 1H, either early or later on, get a Crest of Perandus.