Need some advice on which bow marauder guide to follow, gh0un's vs VenatorPOE

Hi,

Been reading several nice bow marauder guides and all look like a viable and fun option to play, however it's pretty gear depended and I can't decide which would be best to try out with the items I got available.

I am dubbing between gh0un's point blank rain of arrows guide en VenatorPOE's guide to shocker

I have this gear available: (The gems listed in the items are still from my previous melee build and can be ignored.)

Spoiler


Was afraid to experiment more on the bow, alrdy added 2 exalts to it to get the 30% elem dmg and phys dmg on it, figured it was a decent chance to get dmg upgrades when you only miss 2 prefixes, not too unhappy how that turned out, but not sure if I should invest more on fusings and just try for 5L (not that rich anymore atm)

I have 89 points to use on one of the 2 bow marauder builds.

89 points version of gh0un's build
Spoiler
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBAnEEsw6tE1sUTRR1FSAaOCkuKaUqTSzpMHwyfjKJNYY6szrYOuE8BTwtPfw_J0bXSn1M_03YUFBRR1XWVvpX4lhjXz9jp2TnZ5tnoG6qdEF3YnfXd-N35Xq4fLh_K4M4g9uHGYd2iPGLjIwGjHaMz5AKkFWf36IApKykwqZXp4Sqf6q4rj6uk69stz7E9sWKxq7G2N0N3Ubhc-dj7DjtIO8O73zwH_JF9kj8S_xO_MX-Cg==

Summary gh0un's build
Spoiler

Keystone
◾ Iron Reflexes: Converts all Evasion Rating to Armour
◾ Iron Grip: The increase to Physical Damage from Strength applies to Projectile Attacks as well as Melee Attacks
◾ Point Blank: Projectile Attacks deal up to 50% more Damage to very close targets, but deal less Damage to farther away targets
Stats
◾ +210 to Strength
◾ +150 to Dexterity
◾ +60 to Intelligence
Life
◾ 2.9% of Life Regenerated per Second
◾ 239% increased maximum Life
◾ 30% increased Life Recovery from Flasks
◾ +60 to maximum Life
Mana
◾ 10% reduced Mana Reserved
Elemental Damage
◾ 80% increased Elemental Damage with Weapons
◾ 31% increased Elemental Damage
Resistance
◾ +26% to all Elemental Resistances
Armour
◾ 71% increased Armour
Energy Shield
◾ 28% increased maximum Energy Shield
Aura
◾ 10% increased Radius of Auras
Movement
◾ 2% increased Movement Speed
Misc
◾ 20% increased Radius of Area Skills
◾ 8% increased Area Damage

89 points version of VenatorPoE build
Spoiler
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBAnEEswUtDH0OPA6tEH8UTRRxFm8Y2xkuGYUaOB0UIWAkqiftKLUpTymlLIUyCTKJNuk6UkCgQapDnFBQVElVxlYEV-JYY1nzWhpfP2BLYIhhUmaeZ71qk3KpdO108Xfleu982YKbhmCMz49GkFWboZ65n8uiAKcIp4SsqrZBuJO53b6nwA_AGsaextjPZdDQ0k3Uj9Xt37_jaudS7Djub-8O707wH_Iv8932SPcy-Ov60g==

Summary VenatorPoE build
Spoiler

Keystone
◾ Iron Reflexes: Converts all Evasion Rating to Armour
◾ Resolute Technique: Your hits can't be Evaded
◾ Resolute Technique: Never deal Critical Strikes
◾ Unwavering Stance: Cannot Evade enemy Attacks
◾ Unwavering Stance: Cannot be Stunned
◾ Blood Magic: Removes all mana. Spend Life instead of Mana for Skills
Stats
◾ +270 to Strength
◾ +100 to Dexterity
◾ +100 to Intelligence
Life
◾ 4.4% of Life Regenerated per Second
◾ 195% increased maximum Life
◾ +60 to maximum Life
Elemental Damage
◾ 50% increased Elemental Damage with Weapons
◾ 10% increased Elemental Damage
Lightning Damage
◾ 20% Chance to Shock the enemy on hit with Lightning Damage
Resistance
◾ +30% to all Elemental Resistances
◾ +5% to maximum Fire Resistance
◾ +5% to maximum Cold Resistance
◾ +5% to maximum Lightning Resistance
Attack Speed
◾ 27% increased Attack Speed
Frenzy Charge
◾ 18% increased Frenzy Charge Duration
◾ +1 Maximum Frenzy Charge
Armour
◾ Ignore all Movement Penalties from Armour
◾ 40% increased Evasion Rating and Armour
Critical Strike
◾ You take 30% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes
Misc
◾ 30% increased Effect of Buffs on You
◾ 45% increased Shock Duration on enemies


Any guidance on the gear and which of the 2 guides would best fit with it is much appreciated. I have most gems listed in the guides, the few I lack are easy to come by, so can buy them.

Thanks in advance for any tips given
Last edited by Oakie on Mar 9, 2013, 3:23:19 PM
I have no experience with either build, but just going by the summaries, venatorPOE's is much stronger

30% increased buffs, 5% additional Resistance, not to mention attack speed and can't be stunned, can't miss etc.
IGN: OldManBalls (Warbands)
Made that choice aswell last night, not doing much dmg yet about 1100 LA dps and 2k elem hit, but all gems are not levelled properly yet, so it's increasing nicely

really like it so far
RoA build requires using endurance charges, which is an auto-fail for me (I hate the mechanics of endurance cry, kills 80% of the fun from playing). I use venator's build with small modifications and I'm very satisfied.
You do have to take into account that those two builds are fundamentally different, and it is really hard to compare such different builds. Both builds work, both are viable for endgame content, both require good gear to truly shine.

Picking one of them is mainly personal preference based - do you like LA style or RoA style more, with all the little additions. And when it comes to customization, I know mine is very customizable (the tree, the skills and supports used), while ghouns is more fixed on a certain setup which maximizes the particular build.

Statements such as "Venators build has Elemental Adaptation -> it is stronger" are false, because even ghoun himself states that EA is available and will be taken within 2 points in his case, and can be taken before for anyone who wants it. Another obvious one is "Venators cannot miss" - RoA cannot miss by default, and ghoun makes it quite clear. When it comes to the third argument; Inner Force, I would personally modify ghouns build by ditching 5 less useful crit nodes on the bottom right, and picking up Inner Force - and ghoun also states that his skill tree is rather flexible and allows such modifications.
Life is tough... but it is tougher if you're stupid.
None of those.

Iron grip is the way.
Both builds work as people said, and the physical melee build works nicely as well.

Since I got all my points back, Ill use something like this: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAxthYY1BQjM_2SF8_7w653fIv1I8ZLiftrKpyqXzZWfPAGpBVp4QaOOw4V-IyiXflBLMUTaIAZp760h0Uj0anCLiTDH0Qf8ae0NDPZVXGm6FnvcT2PC3Grrc-eriuk7XybqoyfqluTeOsWf6PeA1YrzboOlLfv76KAdykGRv6Jd-E2W5pvqfi6mEhhO907XrvYEsFLUCgIWB08Z65GNtDnA6tKaVbr90N_MVnoId2Sn2HKT38fLgpLmeb7m8Cce9OMgnSTcAPbPaC5JARc-H3iF-qVvrdRvxOY6fz3Tbp42o=
(modified asur build)

Those 112 pts are the build rough draft. You can take whatever you need since you have ele dmg nodes/HP nodes/stat nodes nearly everywhere.
I don't take ele adaptation since I don't have cap resists yet, I don't have that many life nodes because Im playing SC and can survive with LOH, I like my movespeed so I take leather and steel, ETC ETC.
You should adapt it to your playstyle, because youll never get 112 pts anyway :P

My current build is something like this http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAxthYY1BQjM_2SF8_7w653fIv1I8ZLiftrKpyqXzZWfPAGpBVp4QaOOw4V-IyiXflBLMUTaIAZp760h0Uj0anCLiTDH0Qf8ae0NDPZVXGm6FnvcT2PC3Grrc-eriuk7XybqoyfqlueA1YrzboOlLfv76KAdykGRv6Jd-E2W5pvqfi6mEhhO907XrvYEsFLUCgIWB08Z65GNtDnA6tKaWHKT38fLgpLmeb7m8Cce9OMgnSTcAP

OMG NO HP NODES? I usually regen/leech enough to stay alive and its not a HC build. Also, curses!

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