Investing in shield passives

I'm building a melee marauder (HC)



Although I'm going sword+shield right now I'm not sure if I'll keep it that way in the end. The shield gives me extra protection but...6S are 6S.

I guess with 2H weapons you MUST invest in endurance charges and those are also useful with shields as well. On the other hand, the shield passives are wasted if I finally get my hands on a good weapon. I was considering something like this:



Any opinions? Should I stay away from the shields passives and get some extra HP nodes and keep my options opened? Do you think the build is ultra-defensive? In excess may be?

Imho, 2handers are more defensive because of life leech, which will become main life source

I would like to hear more opinions as well

Your shield also gives you extra resistances and block. Endurance charges are also more useful if you have higher defense.

anyone else that has successfully used shield with invested passives in endgame hardcore like to give some input? I'd really like to know from an experienced perspective please!

There are awesome unique high lvl shields out there so if you have like Aegies Aurora you could build your maru around this item and then it is worth capping your block at 7x%

Im running 45% block ek maru lvl 79 atm and i can tell you one thing.

Since you cant get more then 75% block chance i thnik its more important to get raw hp/armor/res then count on block chance alone.

I rather put skill points in hp nodes and other stuff rather then go for 2% block nodes and lower my hp pool/dps ect.

The problem is without proper amount of armor/hp if you dont block You can get bursted down. Chaos damage will go thru anyways, spells ect.

Now some1 will say but i have a lot of armor and hp. Then i would ask you why do you need block for then?

7-10k armor before granite is enought, 85% res all is must then on top of that 75% block chance? And wheres your dps? With pure defensive EK build it might be fine but for anything else im not so sure.

Ive heard #1 maru hc is using a lot of block nodes with EK. He also probably has Aegies Aurora and some ES items and that unique amu Stone of Lazarw something. Now thats tanky stuff. With proper gear like %spell damage modes, cast speed ect ect he has good DPS too i belive.

But thats insane gear for sure and with that every semi decent build would rock imo.

To sum up.

There are better ways to lower damage you take and not gimp your dps output while you lvling up with medicore gear but taking those 15% elemental res nodes near templar is great way to cap max res and i recommend it untill you get gosu gear. With that you can just get items like 100 hp 20 chaos res and faceroll most maps.

Well I am doing a facebreaker build and don't really lack in damage but I was just wondering whether the shield nodes would be worth the investment instead of only stacking on armour/life.