Need help with my Marauder (2h Ground Slam)

Hey guys, I'm level 64 right not and having a bit of difficulty progressing in Merciless Act 3. I'm doing fine in parties, because I'm not the attention of the mobs most of the time and I can damage them from afar. I am currently sitting at 1.8k HP and 1k DPS for my Ground Slam (2k for Heavy Strike).


I'm using Ground Slam, Heavy Strike, Determination, Enduring Cry, Leap Slam and Decoy Totem.


My build:
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEABS0OPA6tD8wUIBiRGNsZLho4IQIhVSFgJ-0otSkuKaUq9jIJOQ46Uj38QKBBP0OcUEdR5lWpVbVWBFcNV-JYPVhjWfNgS2CIYVJyqXTtdPF673uMfLh82YErhmCMBpBVkc6Uh5e0nrmexZ7Nn8ukrKZkpzCnhKyqrLq0L7ndwBrBBMbYyZjUj9lh3D3fsuw47w7vTvIv8933Mve-



Any tips on what I should do from this point? I'm aiming for the health nodes at the Templar area and also to get the ones right at the Marauder area that I didn't take earlier. There's also the health nodes at the Duelist section which looks tempting.

Honestly I think your problem is you've taken too many pure physical dps nodes and not enough HP/Regen nodes, I've made a rework of your build with the same amount of points:



Now the changes are that I got a crappton more life nodes, and about 3% more HP regen, which doesn't sound like a lot but when you have like 3 or 4k life that's a bigg deal.

I've also added more elemental weapon damage nodes, because in the endgame those scale a lot better than physical damage, another thing that might be a good idea is to get a hold of a Lightning Strike skill gem to help take care of mobs from a distance, and since LS turns 50% of your physical damage to lightning that will also be affected by increased elemental weapon damage.

Now in terms of armor I got the ES armor Hybrid cluster in the Templar part of the tree because even though ES is really useless to you the armor is not and it scales just as good as armor nodes alone, plus the big ES/Armor node in that cluster also gives 10% all resists to compensate for the loss of your 15% all resists node at the bottom of the tree.

You might need a lot of orbs of regret to make this work but in terms of making your build work I think this might be the most effective way to go about doing it. Hope this helps!

I was thinking of Lightning Strike, but I'd rather keep to Ground slam on my Marauder if possible. Although I would create a separate character for LS.

I came up with another build that may not require as much orb of regrets, but I'm not too sure if it would work.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAecCcQSzBS0OrRQgFE0Y2xkuGjghAiFVIWAn7Si1KaUq9jIJMok26DkOOlJAoEE_Q5xN2FBHUFBR5lRJValVtVYEV-JYY1nzXQBfP2BLYIhhUnKpdO108Xbnd-V673uMfNmBb4ZgjHaMz5BVl7SePJ65ns2fy6IApzCnhKyqrLq0L7ndwBrBBMbY0TXUj9w951LsOO8O707wH_Iv8932SPe-

Ok while I think what you have there is a definite improvement I do thing you're wasting points on Resolute Technique. That skill should only be used by permastun builds or special niche builds where they have to hit 24/7 for some particular reason. In the case of your build all you need is to get some decently high accuracy stats on your gear or use the accuracy support gem on ur skills, which in the higher levels scales to retardedly high amounts.

With this in mind I would spec out RT and instead in its place get the two .4 life regen nodes in the golem's blood cluster, I cannot stress enough how important life regen is for you. lol

I see. I always thought Resolute Technique was absolutely vital for a melee build.

At this point, should I just reroll my Marauder?

"

Zginc wrote:

I see. I always thought Resolute Technique was absolutely vital for a melee build.

At this point, should I just reroll my Marauder?

Resolute technique is not a must for any melee build other than permastun, as mentioned above, or a lifesteal dependent build. Reason being is build diversity. If someone chooses to specialize in swords, most likely they will be lead down a dex path with a lot of crit/accuracy/dex. Therefore the give and take from resolute technique will be moot.

Other than respecing out of RT, if you have accuracy to compensate for it, (just add up your values and check yourself) your build looks decent to me. No reason to reroll just yet.

RT is mandatory for a melee build, especially when you use lifetap/life leech for almost all of your regen. It is the first thing all Marauder builds should rush for.

Have you thought about more Endurance Charges? You should have about 14 respec points available, right?

Your dps is also really low. With your build and level, you should be doing 5000 from Heavy Strike and 1500+ from Ground Slam. Perhaps you need a new weapon with more linked sockets.

I would avoid wasting points on life regen, because regening 16 (.4% of 4000) health every second isn't going to matter when you kill packs of mobs in 5 seconds. Life leech is huge, especially when you are getting 6% off the gem, 7% from Warlord's, and another 2-6% from gear. Hitting for 1500 dps x 5 mobs = about 1000 health per attack.

Ya i would definetly recommend keeping RT. It is a noticable dps and quality of life increase. Im a lvl 73-74 ground slam marauder soloing endgame maps with ease. Im currently at 3.4k life, 5.5k heavy strike dps, 3.5k ground slam dps. Heres my build.





edit: i would recommend starting to use warlords mark. It is an amazing curse for groundslam marauders and will increase your survivability through life leech a good amount.

"

Suboxone wrote:

Ya i would definetly recommend keeping RT. It is a noticable dps and quality of life increase. Im a lvl 73-74 ground slam marauder soloing endgame maps with ease. Im currently at 3.4k life, 5.5k heavy strike dps, 3.5k ground slam dps. Heres my build.

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAnEEswUtDjwOrQ_MFCAUTRR1GJEY2xkuGjghAiFVIWAn7Si1KaUq9jIJOQ46UjrYQKBBP0OcSn1N2FBHUFBR5lRJVbVWBFb6WGNZ818_YEtgiGFSZ6BqHnKpdEF07XTxeu97jHzZfPWBb4Zgh3aKIox2jM-QVZ48nrmezZ_LogCmZKcwp4SoGKlorKq0L7ndwBrApsDzwQTB2MbYyZjUj9w937_nUuw47w7vTvAf8i_2SPe-_MU=

edit: i would recommend starting to use warlords mark. It is an amazing curse for groundslam marauders and will increase your survivability through life leech a good amount.

Do you not like Endurance charges? I see you skipped 3 of them that you could have easily grabbed. I have found them to be huge in Merciless, especially in Act 3. Currently, I keep 8 charges up indefinitely with the 14 second timer, Warlord's Mark, Oak bonus charge, and Ring Charge.

I like some other pieces in your build that I wish I had the opportunity to try. Iron Reflexes and that 10% attack speed bonus node especially, but for me, those are too far out of the way. Although all of those Dex nodes are useful for the Attack Speed gem.

In regards to the argument about RT, the skill is simply not mandatory, now if your building your Marauder as a 2h that's using pure physical/life leech as your way to survive, then that is different.

I personally just see the fact that you cannot crit wayyy to much of a drawback to something that be so easily remedied with gear or supports. <.<

The build I was centering around was more about doing elemental damage to mobs and focusing less on physical damage and life steal and more on HP and HP regen, using LS as main attack or GS, LS being the better of the two.

Now the whole thing about blood magic is kinda preference, but I personally find it that Id rather just link a blood magic support gem to my attack skills and use my mana to use auras, so I'm not reserving life at all. This is more of an endgame setup however.