[HC] Marauder Leveling Strategy [Stay Safe and Get There] by a n00b for n00bs

OK guys well, I am pretty much a n00b at this game. I've been playing since Open Beta day 1, two weeks after that I decided to try out hardcore and never looked back. I've died several times so far, and have almost but not quite beaten normal on a ranger. I'm bored with the ranger and have decided to check out the Marauder. One of the things I have learned is that I'm not that great at this game yet. I've played many ARPGs in the past but never on hardcore so there is a lot of adjustment that has to happen. I am thinking there are probably a lot of n00bs out there like me that wanted to try hardcore but keep dying early in the game.

I think part of this has to do with the fact that lots try to follow the builds they see posted all over the forums. The problem with this is that those builds are endgame builds and if you try to level with them, you pretty much end up leveling with a build that isn't designed to be effective in the endgame. For all the very good hardcore players out there this may not present much of a challenge but for myself, I find it very difficult to get through even normal trying to just follow a straight endgame build start to finish.

So I decided to attempt to theorycraft a marauder build that grabs as much safety throughout leveling as possible. A wise man once said "You can't kill anything if you're dead". So the build I am going to post is almost entirely defensive. This build is meant for leveling, and the beautiful thing (I think) about it is that I take it up to only 57 passives. My goal isn't to hand anybody an effective endgame build, but to develop a build that remains flexible up to 57 passives, at which point the player can make the call what build they want to go, do you want to be EK? LA? LS? Leap Slam/Sweep? No worries, you can make that decision later. Just follow this build through 57 passives and then choose where to go from there. Pretty much any endgame build is going to require some respeccing in order to stay safe during leveling but become effective in endgame.

So, here is the deal, I would love any insights into the build to improve its safety, efficiency, and flexibility without sacrificing safety. I will detail the build below, including the order in which I advocate taking the passives. I plan to eventually make a video detailing everything and posting it but I have to get capture software and learn how to use it first. The build is designed to be flexible so feel free to prioritize various clusters and come up with your own variations, go ahead and share them within the thread and I will try to update with contributed variations. Here is the build.

Full Build
http://tinyurl.com/c39zbv3

Step 1: Through Resolute Technique

http://tinyurl.com/cyy8fvj

You take the health and reduced crit nodes straight away, can leave the armor nodes for when you feel you need them. You grab Diamond Skin and maxlife/str and this concludes the Marauder start.

Step 2: Templar Tree and Other Life Cluster

http://tinyurl.com/brph8la

Straight from there to Resolute Technique taking the 5% to each resist node on the way. From there you go up to Templar tree and grab life, then to the right and grab the 8%/8%/12% nodes.

Step 3: Blood Magic, More Life Nodes.

http://tinyurl.com/d7kubkz

Now to blood magic grabbing the two 12% life nodes on the way, then grab the other six life nodes up and to the right of the mara tree, and at some point during the build take the armor nodes in the mara tree, whenever you feel like you need some armor. From this point you can build into pretty much any major mara build with limited respeccing as necessary.

Step 4: Take the three armor nodes whenever you feel like you need them (in beginning of mara tree).

http://tinyurl.com/cx9pk7e

Like I said, this build is for those of us that really need to stay safe while we level. It's not for the racers that can beat normal in ten minutes without spending a single passive point, you guys can do whatever you want. I definitely want to invite everybody that wants to contribute, comment or ask questions to do so. I will do my best to update the thread as it progresses and keep everything well organized. Enjoy.

:Reserved:

Alternate 1 (Gorwarth): It was brought to my attention that it might not be a good idea to save unwavering stance for so late in the build because of the threat stuns can pose. If you feel like stuns are making things really dangerous you should consider rushing unwavering stance after bloodmagic and then picking up the other life nodes, like this. http://tinyurl.com/ck2vayb

Leaving unwavering stance to mid-late... isnt that when the danger moments are during stuns?

That's a good point and I think if that looks like it will be a concern then you can do the 11 nodes I have set for after blood magic after grabbing unwavering stance, doing so gets unwavering stance seven nodes earlier and because of how the build works hardly sets you back on grabbing life at all, it just depends on what you feel the biggest threat at this point in progression is... I haven't really made it that far so I am definitely relying on insight from the community to help me out with the later portion of the build. If you think that's still too late in the build, I'm definitely open to suggestions. Thanks!