Need help with my marauder build

Hi.

I started playing PoE very recently and I have to say I really enjoy it. I picked marauder because I really liked barbarian in D2 and I wanted to start with a rather simple class/build.

I have been advancing quite fast, with a death here and there. But now, near the end of ruthless, I just realize my build has too many problems. I don't even want tot think about merciless at the moment. Level 49 marauder.

I've been trying to implement something like the build described in this http://www.pathofexile.com/classes/marauder/view-thread/44201, but I'm having trouble.

That build seems well rounded, but my gear is just too bad to make it work. I'm unable to defeat any of the 3 bandits on ruthless. Oak 2-3 hit kills me.

My skill tree:
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQEAANTk5gHOOIsCZSqGB2uU1Qe-sDIPSLviEMKVMxcVF9YbARdeIP7-jiaTIz8pGeMTKYbAjyvNx0MvFBsJNDa1ajSoAXk3lwhEPSQAtT0qvvhDPcasU09swlR55wBYlVByYXE2U3WdGsR4TQG6fduJLomDkySaWAlQojeodqh2tD2qQzF8qkgB86qU2uOsoUrBrcPaMbnWRGG7r9-gwSqz1MoBrn3NsSBXz4Pdes_uHWfRND3X1IvEq9WMg_TWKw-43wMV1OZRY7PmkKRw8G7nL_Ft-6b2JrLO9_SbKPylNRQ=

My gear(I know it's bad):


Got this in exchange for a unique pair of slippers. Was using mace beforehand, but this sword just did so much more damage than my mace. I plan to use mace again, when I can find something better.






Stats:
default attack: 785 dmg
lightning strike: 1122
heavy strike: 1800

chance to hit 88%
Armour: 2k:
damage reduction: 42%
fire/cold/lightning resistance: 75/65/75%

Lightning strike is my main attack. I use faster attacks, lightning strike, blood magic and life gain on hit.

Combination must look very stupid (and it is), but it's the best I've come up with so far. I'm at 80%+ health if I run into a cluster of mobs and just use lightning strike.

Using heavy strike for mini-bosses and bosses. Also spamming skeletons if I'm too weak to fight the boss head on.

When it's going bad, I just spam health flasks.

My marauder basically dies to everything in 2 seconds if I don't use lightning strike or health flasks. He's so fragile.

My questions:
1. What would be the easiest way to improve my build?

Now I'll just farm some level 45 area for a while to get some loot.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Well for starters you skipped on the initial Marauder health nodes ,Troll's blood and the 2x12 % health nodes near the Life Leech node which are a must have as a Marauder.

Secondly you could have saved 3 point by skipping the Armor Master nodes since movement speed is very easy to get with most bots.

Thirdly swords aren't that good at the moment,sure there are some good rare's out there,but they are either hard to get/roll or require a high level to wield.Also as a Marauder you dont have as many and as good sword nodes compared to axes/maces nodes.


Also dont forget to use Endurance Charges since they can dramatically increase your chances to survive.


Anyway your passive skill tree should look like this:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQEBANTk5gHOOIsCZSqGAuMDHQSOp5wFkiF6B2uU1Qpl2U4O9JYRD0i74hDClTMSIY8jFxUX1iD-_o4phsCPMZNJ9zQ2tWo0QQZ4N5cIRDfEI389JAC1PSq--EddgsJTT2zCVHnnAFnpMgFhimoob_NFF3hNAbp631gQfduJLqI3qHaodrQ9qkMxfKpIAfOsoUrBudZEYbuv36DBKrPUygGufc2xIFfRND3X1YyD9NYrD7jfAxXU5pCkcPBu5y_xbfum9iayzvf0myi7ikAZ0z_we8vVF8_Ui8SrhAn-KdjZxq_qO24_qC96iYkb7dyhYXeMq-AyFcoWDmc=

*Warning* Wall of Text

HP is the biggest part about being a Marauder, not armor. And you've skipped nearly every nice HP stat. Pick up the total of 40% HP and and 2% regen at the start like dualestl said.

You have a lot of damage, and not enough survival as you are finding out. And you still have another difficulty and several maps to go. There's a circle of 2H nodes you have below Lava Lash.. I would remove them all and put them further right about the HP nodes you have picking up the 2 damage nodes, 30 str, 3 8% hp, and 30% armor. And then after that's all done, head towards Sword Mastery at the bottom if you choose to stick with Swords.

Here's what would look like in about 10 levels with all those changes:


For your skills, remove Ground Slam as it serves no purpose other than leveling and add a Added Fire Damage gem if you can get one. If you have a lot of Chromatic Orbs (sell gear with linked red, green, and blue), you can try re-rolling the colors on it to get a Green. Than you can do Heavy Strike with faster atk, more dmg, and added fire damage for much higher damage. I run that for around 2.3k dps at level 5x. Also, pick up a Decoy Totem in place of Sweep. Good for gathering mobs up and giving you a few seconds of breathe time to regen/flask/leech. And pick up Warlord's Mark and Enduring Cry. Warlord's Mark increases life/mana leech on mobs while giving you a chance to gain endurance charges and increased flask charges. Enduring Cry gives you endurance charges based on the # of mobs around you. Endurance charges = 5% damage reduction per charge with a cap of 3 before adding passives to increase it. There is a +1 Endurance Charge further north of Armor Mastery if you want to make it 20% damage reduction with 4 charges. Good for when you get swarmed to pop that off and become somewhat of a tank against regular mobs.

As for gear, your weapon is actually not far from my 2h. Can you not use Blacksmith Whetstones on it? (I haven't tried to enchant a Unique yet). The rest of your gear could use a touch up. Because you need to focus on HP and not armor, most of your gear does not add +HP which reduces % HP's effectiveness. Your boots do not add anything special aside from armor, and you really need movement speed on them (~20-25% at that level). Also, if you have some magic modification orbs lying around, try and pick up some level 45 normal flasks and upgrade them to magic and reroll them or add another stat on them. It won't be much, but it will help.

You are using a lot of gear with half your level requirement as a note that you haven't found much your level. Best way to find some new gear at your level is to find a cave around your level and continuously farm it. There's a Cave in Old Fields, the map before Waterfall, Mud Flats, and more with a guarantee chest at the end. Get to the chest, get the loot, exit the cave, go back to the entrance, and Ctrl+click to reset the instance and repeat. Just try and be as close to the level of the cave as possible to optimize gear rolls to your level and there are diminishing returns on lower level maps.

Fixed my pasive skill tree, according to your suggestions. Got almost 1400 HP now, compared to 800 I had before, health regeneration is ~60/second.

What regeneration rate should I be aiming for?

3 bandit quest was rather easy now. Will switch to merciless difficulty in a moment.


http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQEAAmUqhgSOp5wHa5TVB76wMg70lhEPSLviEMKVMxIhjyMXFRfWIP7-jiaTIz8pGeMTKYbAjyq6bV4rzcdDMZNJ9zQ2tWo3lwhEN8Qjfz0kALU9Kr74Qz3GrFNPbMJUeecAVmvlb2GKaih4TQG6fduJLokb7dyJg5MkojeodqgveomodrQ9qkMxfKpIAfOsoUrBrcPaMbnWRGG7ikAZu6_foMEqs9TKAa59y9UXz82xIFfPg9160TQ919M_8HvVjIP01isPuN8DFdTmkKRw7cBmVvBu5y_xbfum9iayzvf0myj8pTUU


I plan to switch to maces in future, so I won't invest in sword passive points.

It's hard to say. Regeneration in terms of Blood Magic means regenerating faster than you can spend with skills. Regeneration in terms of overall character, you have to factor it with leech and life on hit (and defenses) to make sure you are regaining HP faster than you are losing it versus mobs. There are also level 60 maps where you will receive damage constantly like poison, where having regen is very nice.

Most people stop where you are at now, but a few people continue around to get the extra 1% regen. You will see an extra 14 hp/sec if you get both nodes with your current hp. I would hold out on more regen and work on more HP for survival.