Just got to act 3 merciless, getting pwned, help?

Ok so I like playing melee characters even though I've heard they are not as good as ranged characters currently, that's fine.

However my 2 handed mace Marauder is getting absolutely stomped in act 3 of merciless.

So I have tried to focus on getting as many HP nodes as possible and life on my gear. My resists are pretty good considering this is my first char (55'ish for lit and ice, 25'ish for fire, -60 unfortunately for chaos).

I have slightly less armor than ideal but I use the determination aura to make up for it. I also have a good amount of life leech and life on hit.

Regardless, everything in act 3 completely shreds me. I can understand chaos damage killing me quick due to my horrible chaos resists, but just regular white mobs with no chaos damage also shred me quickly.

My DPS is good, I 1 shot everything with heavy strike and 3-5 shot everything with ground slam. The problem isn't so much my killing of things but that my HP plummets like a stone and I have to chug pots and constantly kite and can't stand and fight.

So what am I doing wrong? Is it really just a matter of gear at this point?

My build is pretty solid (as far as a 2 handed mace marauder build goes) and very similar to builds I've seen posted.

Here is my current build at level 64:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAdwB5w_MEtkUIBiRGS4Z6Ro4Gj4b-iECITQhVSXfJ-0q9i3SMfs26DkOOtg7O0E_R35N2E3jUEdQUFHmVElYY1ivWfNfOV8_YMRlTXKpeA17jHy7fNmE2Yx2jM-QVZkrogCkGaZkpzCnhKlurFmsqrQvud29gb6KwBrBBMWKxtjJmMqQ0EfUj9w93ePeweSt51LsOO8O8B_xrPIv9kj3vv6P

I'm just at a loss. I can't do anything solo, I have to join parties just to progress at all and even then I'm somewhat dead weight and still die quick.

it's just not you. You just need to have A) luck B) a party or C) grind until you get decent gear to finish merc and start doing maps.

This is the optimal build i guess that every 2 handed mace user goes for.



Don't know if any one would disagree with this.

Also a you can post your gear?

Below is my current gear, obviously I need to upgrade things like my gloves and helm and chest. I have 2750 HP at the moment, but even if I had 4000 I get the feeling I'd melt. I go from full to dead almost instantly way too often. I mean even with good upgrades I'm worried I'll still get destroyed.

Gear looks very good to me...maybe a helm with life on it but that's it.

The build itself is where the problem at.
You get stunned alot and that's bad in this game...that's why we take unwavering stance to eliminate that....and while we at it we go all the way to iron reflexes and that's going to make you more tanky with the grace aura.
We take blood magic and go to the Golem's blood and take this point and the following points so that's your health regenerate faster and forget all your problems about mana.



You wasted some points on useless armor nodes and damage ones while you don't need that much because your weapons will provide most of the damage.


Also in the skill setup you need to remove that life gain on hit and heavy strike from your armor and make this 4 link GS+melee damage+ weapon elemntal damage + added fire.

Your DPS should go way up.

Try to get enduring cry and have some charges up when you face mobs with a lot of elemental damage or a boss...should make things much easier while you are using heavy strike and make you more tougher.

If i may say....this build ain't working maybe you should start a new one.

I haven't had time to go in detail with your build yet but so far I already found the out the following issue with your build.

i) Not enough Life Leech: You need higher Life Leech % to compensate monster damage.

ii) Endurance Charge vs Armor: You should make full use of endurance charge as each charge gives you 5% damage reduction. Because of the armor damage reduction formula (as least currently), armor nodes only works well if you have high base armor value, otherwise it doesn't help much at all.

iii) Blood Magic: Other than the reason of running Determination Aura, is there any reason not to take the Blood Magic keystone?

"

Fargali wrote:

This is the optimal build i guess that every 2 handed mace user goes for.

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBxthYY1BQjM_2SF8_VEnnUu8Oud3yL9SPGS4n7ayq891yqXzZe4whAir2IVU5DjH73D3BBFW1ns1256cwFCBQRxRxDjw6Ut-_hmBWBGFSn8tgiCi1704yCUCgBS1gS3rvdO0hYHTxnrkY20OcDq1br90N_MVnoId2Sn1Z88AakFWnhBo47DhX4nflMokEsxRNogDwHymlAnFmnvrSHRSPRtDQz2VVxhZvGJHJmA==

Don't know if any one would disagree with this.

Also a you can post your gear?

I have a few questions on this build:

i) Since you are going RT and BM, why take the Versatility?

ii) Why ignore the life nodes near the Zealot's Oath and go way further up for a smaller group?

iii) Why Elemental Adaption where you hardly invest in resist nodes? 135% is a long way to cover.

Get more resists from your rings. The belt and amulet is fine I guess. And get a rare astral plate with resists+life for the chest.

I had lower health compared to yours when I was 60. No trouble getting through merciless a3 though. Can even carry my friend throughout.

2282 max life
1117 armor
75% resists to cold/fire/lightning
-26% resist to chaos

Get a voidhome dread maul and you can tear through merciless. Faster attacks = faster regen.
You can check out the gears I used here. http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/185005

I went for aspd rings since I had 2 15% ele resist nodes which helped alot capping out my resists.

"

Fargali wrote:

This is the optimal build i guess that every 2 handed mace user goes for.

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBxthYY1BQjM_2SF8_VEnnUu8Oud3yL9SPGS4n7ayq891yqXzZe4whAir2IVU5DjH73D3BBFW1ns1256cwFCBQRxRxDjw6Ut-_hmBWBGFSn8tgiCi1704yCUCgBS1gS3rvdO0hYHTxnrkY20OcDq1br90N_MVnoId2Sn1Z88AakFWnhBo47DhX4nflMokEsxRNogDwHymlAnFmnvrSHRSPRtDQz2VVxhZvGJHJmA==

No, it is not. There are so many 2h mace builds around how could you even say so.
And its certainly not optimal (but thats OT).

OT:
- 25% in any resists is pretty much inexcusable, try to get above 70% in every one. Shouldn`t be too hard with some gear acquisitions. (just take 15% fire resists nodes and respec out of them later if you dont wanna buy too much gear)
- DPS: Especially for Ground Slam, I cant imagine it being high. You have Ground Slam 3linked with Blood Magic and Life on Hit. That is no damage support gem! Get Ground Slam in a 4link and I would get rid of the Blood Magic gem (that really only makes sense if you have 5L and what do run several auras like Haste as well). With a Melee phyiscal and Added Fire (or Haste) gems, your Ground Slam DPS will double up!
- Curses! Are you running Enfeeble constantly? I like Warlords Mark more because it gives you Endurance Charges, but you should absolutely use them.
- Decoy Totem? Also a good help for more survivability.
- Armor shouldnt be a problem. You have quite some armor nodes taken and will still have way more armor than eddiec93. If you want more, get a chest with more than 1000.

"

Zaqwert wrote:

Below is my current gear, obviously I need to upgrade things like my gloves and helm and chest. I have 2750 HP at the moment, but even if I had 4000 I get the feeling I'd melt. I go from full to dead almost instantly way too often. I mean even with good upgrades I'm worried I'll still get destroyed.

How did you get these items? Did you buy them off of other player? I have crappy item that I buy off of NPC =(