Have I gone wrong with Wobacha? Critique and suggestions sought

I have a level 57 Marauder in Standard (Leap Slam, Infernal Blow+MultiStrike, Heavy Strike+Melee Splash), currently slogging it's way through Act 1 Merciless. I've made it to the Lower Prison... just! However, if I try venture onto Tidal Island (level 58) I am dead within seconds to any rare mob.

So, have I gone wrong somewhere with my build, do I need to upgrade my gear or do I just need to learn to play better?

Passive Tree

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAecFLRLhFCAZLhpVHOcg8CECIWAn7SkuKvYx-zIJNug6Uj38QKBE50ZpUEdQUFRJVw1YY1ivXz9gS2EhZKNlp2oeajtyqXTtdPF253rve4x8uHzZhO-HKYzPkc6Vm5uDnrmezacwqBisqrndu-3G2NIh2WHfv-Jh5FHnUueu7w7vTvIv9kj3vg==

Items



p.s. I'm playing self-found *slowly* so would prefer advice that is focused on crafting/grinding rather than trading for specific uniques.

Well, I can appreciate your plight. I was in a similar plight with my first Marauder. I ended up rage deleting him. I recently got some input here as well.

First. You don't have a lot of armor. This can be fixed, with some gear, and some passive changes.

My current Marauder is a 2h'er. I'm using Heavy Strike, Leap Slam, and Sweep. I don't use Splash, and I don't use Multistrike. Honestly, at 64, I'm in A3 Cruel, clearing the Catacombs for farming stuff while I get a few more levels (I'd like to be 66 when I get to the Gemling Queen, so I feel "comfortable" just going and running a map after getting the Lab.

This is my build Now, obviously, mine is geared towards 2h'er, but there are some things you should notice.

My Gear, for comparison


It's not amazing, but it's getting there.

I don't use the Marauder DPS area. It's just... meh IMO. And, those points are use to give me more survivability.

I'm not sure what kind of DPS you are cranking, or what you "could" be cranking, but with my current build, I'm at 5k dps single target after factoring out the junk neck I'm wearing purely for the resists.

I also don't use the Blood Magic Keystone. I use blood magic supports on my attacks, and use Auras (a key factor IMO) to consume my mana. I have enough Mana left over to use Warlord's mark, as needed. I don't even carry a mana flask anymore.

If I were going to mess with your tree, I would do this: Updated Build

I'd start looking into running Vitality, Hatred, Determination for Auras, with a reduced Magic Gem on them.

I'd also pick a single target skill. For my version of your build, I went with Heavy Strike. I'm just not a fan of Infernal Blow.

But, if you were going to run a build like this, you are going to need some gear with 4l's. Which is another problem that you have right now. Your gear, while not "terrible" could be improved.... A lot.



I have this stuff sitting in my stash. If any of it looks appealing to you, hit me up IGN (Onisu). In the spirit of "paying it forward" from what the templar did (see my edit), I'd gladly toss you a chest, and weapon, if it would help you. (since you're helm looks solid)

I even have a shield that I could part with

Unfortunately, I can't give that away. It's on a char right now, so I'd need to sell it, for at least enough to buy a new base item to craft with.

And... If you had the points, and wanted to try out 2h'er (it wouldn't take much to swap over your build to a 2h'er build as far as refund points go) I have 2 KILLER 2h'ers sitting in the stash.



I'd be willing to do something for you there if you were interested.

EDIT:
I just noticed you said you were self found. And I understand. I try to play that way as much as possible as well. The only piece of gear that I linked that wasn't self found, was the 2h'er which some awesome Templar gave me for free a couple of weeks ago. Had no Idea who he was.

This is all with respects to playing self found;

First of all; drop life-on-hit for life leech - i'm pretty sure you can get it from a quest reward, and judging by your level i'd say your dps is enough to sustain it better.

Also your skill settup is a bit strange - you don't really need 2 aoe's that early on, especially since phys/ele reflect isn't much of a problem, even then, its not recogmended.

Ideally you'd want;
infernal blow = melee phys/wep ele/multistrike (whichever gives you more dps) = melee splash = lifeleech

Your passive tree is poorly spec'd as well (nothing personal - just being honest)

You have speced into a lot of dps and armor nodes which scale HORRIBLY untill you pick up solid gear. The Iron reflex + unwavering stance + grace combo is crucial to leveling, especially if you're playing self found where gear is short. Early game you want to focus on lifenodes and defensive stats. I didn't pick up a single offensive passive on my marauder untill the early 70s - its standard practice for melee classes; honestly, for almost all classes.

Respec to this if/when you can and you will find it significantly easier to progress:
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEABS0UIBkuHOcg8CFgJ-0yCTpSQKBE51BHUFBUSVcNWGNfP2BLah5qO3KpdO108Xbneu982YzPkc6euZ7NpzCoGKyqud3G2NIh2WHfv-dS7w7vTvIv9kj3vhRxDjyGYFYEYVKfy2CIKLUY20OcDq0ppYTvm4NT31jbhNllTUd-W6_dDfzFZ6CHdkp9YSES4ZAK

It uses 3 more points that what you've currently got, but you get the general idea. I'm assuming you needed the 30 int and dex nodes for gems, so i've replaced those in better positions.

Since you're playing self found its understandable that you'd want the resist nodes, however freeing up those passives would help a lot.

Ideally, end game you'd want something along the lines of this:
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEABS0UIBkuIWAn7TIJOlJAoFBHUFBUSVcNWGNfP2BLcql07XTxdud673zZjM-Rzp65ns2nMKyqud3G2NIh2WHfv-dS7w7vTvIv9kj3vhRxDjyGYFYEYVKfy2CIKLUY20OcDq0ppYTvm4NT31jbhNllTUd-W6_dDfzFZ6CHdkp9YSES4avFvYGZK9SPWfPAGpBVp4QaOOw4V-IyiXflBLMUTQJx8B-DOO98ogC0-TrYLdJN2Ix2891uab6n0k3ADyXfG_qkGQ==

Amplify + Master of the Arena are crucial for playing any infernal blow variant. 3 extra endurance charges will give you huge survivability, and i'd even recogmend helping oak in merciless for an additional one. The reduction endurance charges gives can't be pierced by high phys. boss attacks, hence why their so valuable.

This build also then gives you access to numerous wep-specific, melee phys, and 1h nodes which you can progress into depending on what you're currently using; however I would HIGHLY recogmend looking for a 1h mace and picking up Bone smasher near the templar area, and skull cracking, near Resolute Technique. These give +88% phys damage to maces for 5 passive points, which is unbelievable.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the awesome responses! It will take me a while to digest all these pearls of wisdom!

Shocking to think I've been playing Path of Exile for over a year and a good deal of this advice went over my head on the first read.

For completeness, I also got this via PM from Reinhart:

"

Reinhart wrote:

On a first look your tree looks good enough.

What I do have seen is that your main skills are linked up to some high mana cost support gems. So this means since you got blood magic you need high life regeneration if you want to sustain your skills. There are a lot of nodes that can provide you this near Purity of Essence. I would also advice to maybe drop some of your support gems to lower the life cost or replace them with reduced mana gems.

Since you got blood magic, you cant really run many auras. You seem to have taken quite a lot of armor nodes already. I would try to run just one additoinal aura: rejuvenation that will grant you added life regen.

Since you are making your way into the duelist tree, try to go for the following nodes: Master of the Arena, Steel Skin, Acceleration and maybe Leather and Steel. There is also another 1 pc life regen node in the neighbourhood.

Update: read through the posts again and took some action.

Have started to respec via shoju and Reinharts's suggestion of beefing up Armour (e.g. steel skin) and common recommendation to drop DPS nodes in favour of survivability.

Hailstryder's build suggestion is a cunning plan but I fear this build has gone too far down it's current route to consider respecing into armour buff via an Iron Reflexes + Grace.

Will look out for gear with more armour especially my chest piece.

Build feels more solid already with the 30% armour buff from Steel Skin and I can't say I've noticed the drop in DPS. Hopefully I can tackle Brutus now.

I only do 1 to 1.5K dps currently so life on hit is still more effective for me than life leech. I will try find a better 1H. I'm sticking with 1H axes since that was part of the theme with this char. Forgot to mention that in the OP :P

Anyhoo, I've also decided to build a cookie-cutter character that is easier to get through to end-game and keep Wobacha as a pet project. He sat idle for a good 2 months in Standard whilst I worked on challenges in Anarchy so he's used to waiting. ;)

"

obadonke wrote:

Update: read through the posts again and took some action.

Have started to respec via shoju and Reinharts's suggestion of beefing up Armour (e.g. steel skin) and common recommendation to drop DPS nodes in favour of survivability.

Hailstryder's build suggestion is a cunning plan but I fear this build has gone too far down it's current route to consider respecing into armour buff via an Iron Reflexes + Grace.

Will look out for gear with more armour especially my chest piece.

Build feels more solid already with the 30% armour buff from Steel Skin and I can't say I've noticed the drop in DPS. Hopefully I can tackle Brutus now.

I only do 1 to 1.5K dps currently so life on hit is still more effective for me than life leech. I will try find a better 1H. I'm sticking with 1H axes since that was part of the theme with this char. Forgot to mention that in the OP :P

Anyhoo, I've also decided to build a cookie-cutter character that is easier to get through to end-game and keep Wobacha as a pet project. He sat idle for a good 2 months in Standard whilst I worked on challenges in Anarchy so he's used to waiting. ;)

Good plan.

I went ahead, and swapped over to the Iron Reflexes + Grace trick to try it out. It ended up being 1500 Armor more by doing that, instead of a 50% armor cluster, and I can go back, and pick up the armor node as I level up now, and end up with even more armor.

I wouldn't necessarily say that IR+Grace is 'crucial' to leveling, especially for a Marauder since he can't realistically reach it until the late 30s at the earliest. That's not to say it's a bad investment, since you do get quite a boost out of it, but it's not as mandatory as one might think.

Then again I don't find defense to be the issue, even though I play self-found like the OP does, but rather that it can be a real pain finding a suitable upgrade for my weapon. Which makes taking damage nodes a good alternative, provided they lie along one's transit route so can be taken without undue expenditure(s), since you're going to want them eventually anyway and the increase(s) will help while one is looking for a suitable weapon.

Of course, if you're planning to take IR and run Grace anyway then this is all moot.