2h marauder needs advice

Hello,

First sorry for the long post, there is much to say, and thanks to anyone taking some time to help out!

I would need some advice about my 2h marauder please.

About skills, i use heavy strike, sweep/ground slam, molten shell and enduring cry. Anything I should really change?

About passives, I'm currently lvl 57 with 13 skill points unallocated, and here is what it looks like :
current build

Quite basic :
Resolute technic, unwavering stance, golem's blood and diamong skin path.

I'm planning my build to around ~65, so let's say ~21 skill points to allocate.
I'm wondering if I should head to catalyse/discipline/slaughter like this :
catalyse/discipline/slaughter

Or if I should go for this one, taking passives on the golem's blood upper path :
alternative build

The catalyse/discipline/slaughter build has my preference, but maybe I'm wrong, anyone has any advice? wich path would you go with your marauder?

Also, I use much Enduring Cry, and I think at least 2 additionnal charges would be cool.
Is it worth considering taking additional charges?

About Iron Reflex, I can hardly say how good it is... for now in my case it would be 4 passives spended for a +200 armour. Someone would have feedback about it?

A last thing about Blood magic. I took the path to blood magic (but not the skill) because much people says it's a must have. I don't understand why.
So far I never had mana issue. I spam enduring cry, molten shell, sweep and heavy strike, and 1 mana flask is enough to keep spamming.
So, is there any other reason, like mana leechers mobs in the end game?

Thanks for your advices!

If you don't have mana issues it might be because of low attack speed. Once I added Blood Magic everything flowed so much better. To your other question, I haven't met any mobs whose mana leech was an issue.

I don't think going for Catalyze is worth it, there are so many melee physical/2H/weapon DPS talents to choose from. Unless maybe you wanted to go for a weapons-agnostic build so you could switch between swords/axes/maces. This is more versatile but at a significant cost in lost DPS.

I think going for 5 endurance charges is worth it, though I wish they were easier to maintain. We need a mechanism similar to Blood Rage, even with my totem casting Warlord's Mark I need to spam Enduring Cry to maintain charges which is a hassle and I like when mobs beat on my totem or minion.


Here's what I am currently aiming for which is pretty close to your 2nd build, but sword-focused (79% increased physical damage and 10% increased AS with swords):

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I'm also on the fence about Iron Reflexes, it's a must-have for survival-oriented rangers but marginal for a Strength-based character. I'll see how much evasion I happen to have once I'm at a level where the rest of the build is done.

Iron Reflex is only very strong when you have all evasion gear and the evasion rate % passives. It would require a lot more than 4 points to obtain all of that and it would mean switching your armor gear to evasion. If you want another 200 armor, pick up another +10% armor or 2 and switch any evasion gear to armor for added benefit. My 4x duelist runs over 3k armor with IR, before Grace aura.. until they nerf IR anyways.

Catalyze can be very beneficial, but it all depends on how you use it. With Lava Lash, Catalyze, added fire damage support and added elemental damage support.. you can see where the numbers will really add up. But if you don't have much elemental damage, you will see very little benefit from it. If you are going to go for more of a pure physical damage set-up, don't get it. My Duelist with a 2H runs Heavy Stike with atk speed, more physical damage support, and add fire damage support with Lava Lash and has over 1.5k dps. And at 48 he'll probably top 2k with a new mace.

Blood Magic is only good if you have a high hp pool and leech/regen to go with it. When you are spending more hp to use skills than you regen, it's bad news bears. It's reduces your resource pools to worry about to just 1, HP. And also, you can get rid of any and all gear that adds to mana/mana regen/int.. leaving more room for other useful stats.

Thanks for your answers and your advices.

For blood magic, I think I have a fair attack speed for a two handed weapon : 1.43.
If ever I have mana issues it won't be too expensive to pick it anyway :)
Thanks for your answer about mana leech monsters.

About versatility, yes that's why I did not choose passives for a weapon type.
Also, in my mind, going for some elemental damage would allow me to damage physical resistant mobs... if this ever exists xD
I rushed my char and don't know well game mechanics and content, I don't really realize wich damage catalize could add with elemental and fire support gems on heay strike, maybe I can find some kind of dps calculator.

Anyone could tell me wich skill you are using with your marauders?

Thanks again for your inputs :)

"

chronos007 wrote:

For blood magic, I think I have a fair attack speed for a two handed weapon : 1.43.

It's not just about weapon speed. With a slower sword I still have 1.9 AS with Faster Attacks support on Lightning Strike, and that's without 3 Frenzy Charges and getting more AS passives, which will get me well above 2 attacks per second. This helps Life on Hit scale.

Having a fast attack is also a way to trigger more stuns and shocks.

Any mob is "physical resistant" by virtue of having armor. Some mobs have more armor than others.

I'm using Phase Run as a single target opener to a Life Leech+Melee Physical Damage+Physical Damage at Full Life Heavy Strike. This one-shots most same-level whites and makes a serious dent in anything else (at level 47).

Lighning Strike as my AOE DPS with Faster Attacks, Life on Hit, Weapon Elemental Damage.

Otherwise I use Blood Rage (more when I can really go full offense) and Molten Shell + Enduring Cry especially when things go south. I use a Totem support to cast Warlord's Cry. When Necros are around, I remove Blood Rage and Explode Corpses instead.

Finally I have Dominating Blow with Enhanced Duration and Minion Life which lets me keep a minion around to increase DPS and divert attention from me/my totem. I plan to switch to Minion Damage but I need more Intel on my gear first, and I'm eagerly waiting for the AI fix as minions tend to stand there just taking hits.

There is a reduce physical damage modifier on mobs. Also, certain mobs can cast enduring cry which increases physical damage resistance as well. So the converted damage can be helpful.. but there will be mobs with elemental resist and reduce physical damage, royally screwing you, lol.

You could even pick up elemental weakness if you choose to have a lot more elemental damage with physical damage.

Thanks for your answers!