Are Unwavering Stance/Iron Reflexes required for late game Marauders?

I'm trying to plan out a build for open beta that will be relatively self-sustaining and not too gear dependent, so I'm going to try for a ground slam Marauder.

Since I want to use GS as my main attack ability, I would like to move up into the Templar tree to get the AOE buff, resistance, health, and regeneration passives. Doing so means I will not have enough points to get down to unwavering stance (let alone iron reflexes).

Currently I'm predicting my build will have 1350 health at level 61 before items.

To those of you who have gotten that far, is it a bad idea to not take the unwavering stance/iron reflexes combo?

For details, here is my build. I'm fairly sure I overemphasized damage and could stand to lose a few points in the physical damage with maces category.

Well these both are incredibly strong keystones wich provide amazing utility it's still possible to create a viable build without them of course but not getting them will definitely put you in a position of disadvantage compared to other marauders in some situations.

If you wanna reach em, you could do something like this:
BUILD (level 70?)

Thank you, Vold. I took that and modified it a bit. Ended up with this.

I'm avoiding blood magic because I want to use auras. Not sure if I'll be able to pull if off, and if I can't, it's just one click away.

I'm still not convinced that Iron Reflexes is worth going all the way over there. I can kind of justify picking up Unwavering Stance for the stun immunity, since getting stunned is incredibly irritating when I'm trying to stunlock THEM.

Still, nobody has answered my question: is the IR/US combo necessary for end-game material?

US is not mandatory. IR probably isn't either but it's quite point efficient. Level 16 Grace is giving me another 1150 armor and getting 1k+ armor on chest and 500+ on other slots is a lot easier with armor+eva than armor alone. There are also excellent life and mana nodes close to IR so it's not like you're going over there for it alone.

What about this build?
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBxthYY1BQjM_2SF8_e4whAir2IVU5DjH73D3BBFW1ns2nMPe-0iFXDZHO2WEZLift892sqlnzwBqQVaeEGjjsODrYLdJ8u8WK8B8EsxRNAnGiAKlogzjvfOSt3sFyqXzZFCBQRxiRyZg6UjboZKMaVWEhEuGE73Tteu9gSwUtQKAhYHTxnrkY20OcDq0ppViveA2pbk3jrFn-j7XyrpOmVzrhiPFR5rQvQT8B5w==

this is how i plan. DMG nodes maxing in the end.

"

thisbutironically wrote:

US is not mandatory. IR probably isn't either but it's quite point efficient. Level 16 Grace is giving me another 1150 armor and getting 1k+ armor on chest and 500+ on other slots is a lot easier with armor+eva than armor alone. There are also excellent life and mana nodes close to IR so it's not like you're going over there for it alone.

I find the life and mana nodes near the Templar easier to get in almost all cases, particularly if you're stacking endurance charges. Also, that +30 flat life near the templar gets boosted to around +75 with all the % increase bonuses.

I've found a way to tweak my build to get down there. I'm just not sure if I want to.

A 6th endurance charge would be nice, but I just don't consider Templar-side efficient. On the IR side, 4 points in stat nodes plus 6 in good nodes gets you 58% life and the option of 28% mana and 20% mana regen for another 3. In the middle, 4 points in stat nodes plus 6 in good nodes gets you 66% life. On the Templar side, 7 points in state nodes and 7 in good nodes gets you 62%+30 life with the option of 1% hp regen, 1 end charge, and 12% damage for 1 additional each or 16% mana, 7% reduced cost (doesn't apply to auras), and 20% mana regen for 5 more.

If 90+ point builds were feasible, Templar would be a no-brainer, but as it is every point is precious and dropping 14-22 in the Templar area is a real stretch in my opinion.

You don't need mana if you're using blood magic anyway.

It's (maybe) not as efficient if you're already building Iron Reflexes, but that's part of the calculus of passive skill points. If you're building down to Armor Mastery but not Iron Reflexes, it works out better to move up into the Templar build than to continue to move toward Iron Reflexes.

Anyway, I found a way to have my cake and eat it too.

It's all about end charges.