First Marauder Build

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBxthYY1BQjM_2SF8_e4whAjTyqXM5DiFV3D3BBBLZGj7xrGDEITQ7OzboOlLfvw48iI87jI70FHGnMPe-FCBQRxiRVEnnUu8Oud3UjxkuJ-3z3ayqcql82VnzwBpmnnFNms9DY7cxWPWdxD38fLgpLg==

wanting to try this build.. would it be viable for leveling and/or endgame?.. thank you

Just recently I died trying the beta on a friends account playing the HC-race(oneweek one) on a similar build and it worked really well until the end part of cruel.

It had probably more to do with the fact that I didn't take my time to get some better gear but rather just rtsd.

So, as far as normal and cruel it will work well. End game? No idea bro.

I would swap out a few dmg nodes for more hp. Imo you should also take HP and HP/sec over armour.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBAnEEsw48FE0UcRkuGjghAiFVJ-0pLi3SMfs08jkOOlI62D38QapN2FBQVElXDVhjWfNfP3Kpe4x8uHzZgW-MdozPkFWRzp48nz6iAKeEqXOsqrndu-3AGsbY1I_ZYdw937_nUuw47w7wH_Pd9kj3Mvjr

I think this would be more viable. Although having a lot less armour and a little bit less dps. Your hp and hp/regen will be amazing.

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singasux wrote:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEBxthYY1BQjM_2SF8_e4whAjTyqXM5DiFV3D3BBBLZGj7xrGDEITQ7OzboOlLfvw48iI87jI70FHGnMPe-FCBQRxiRVEnnUu8Oud3UjxkuJ-3z3ayqcql82VnzwBpmnnFNms9DY7cxWPWdxD38fLgpLg==

wanting to try this build.. would it be viable for leveling and/or endgame?.. thank you

Ok, you should be looking at the points you currently invested, and then looking at other places that do similar things, but better.

For example, you grab 3x 10% armor nodes followed by 2x 8% mace dmg nodes and a 4%dmg/2%aspd mace node when you have smashing blows (12%dmg/6% aspd) as well as 2x 8% mace dmg nodes directly next to Bloodless.

Also, stun duration nodes aren't necessary, so those points can go towards something more worthwhile, like getting you towards the 10/10/30% Steel skin cluster just below Blood Magic, which has other nice things right next to it (like Unwarvering Stance and Berserking). Elemental adaptation is also largely useless before the late game, because that 5% to maximum resistances only counts OVER the 75% cap, it's not a flat +5% to all resists. If you wanted a good boost to resists, take Diamond Skin.

So, with a bit of rearrangement, you can get this

Which is 2% more mace damage, 4% more attack speed, 15% to all resists, and 20% more armor than your build for one more point, AND I got you access to the ability to never be stunned as well as 15% more attack speed that you wouldn't have been able to reach otherwise. You won't miss the stun duration when you're swinging faster and living longer.

The next point: if you look here at the northernmost point, you'll notice something interesting. There are two Body and Soul based rings that give armor, energy shield, and elemental resists, and they're pretty close together. One takes 7 points to complete (the northern one) and offers more armor than the western one, the capstone of which can be reached in 7 points, although it requires a greater investment to complete the ring. BUT, remember that this is a blood magic build, so you're going to need a really solid health pool to be able to stay alive AND cast whatever mace-based attacks you want.

This is where the western Body and Soul ring starts to look more attractive, because of two things. First of all, the path towards it gives you 40 strength and 26% life with the Fitness node and the shortest connection to the Body and Soul ring. Secondly, if you complete this western ring, you have ANOTHER 28% life AND 30 flat hitpoints waiting for you in the Templar area. Consider the fact that once you've completed the northern Body and Soul ring, there is absolutely nowhere for you to go, completing it opens up zero new opportunities for you, it just gets you a lot of armor.

Now you might go and call bullshit on me when you see another Fitness node just to the north of your Body and Soul ring, BUT if you take that one, it is actively worse per the points invested compared to what I've been arguing for.

Compare the north with the west when 62 points are invested in each.

North has: 20 strength, 34% life, 60% armor, and 20 intelligence (which is wasteful in a bloodmagic build), and limited potential for improvement.

South has: 40 strength, 54% life, 44% armor, and 30 hitpoints (these are modified by your current 115% life modifier to 64.5 hitpoints). This also gives you access to the 1% life regen node, which makes casting and staying alive as a blood magic build much easier.

This is just one example, you can actually mess around with the northern path and get both fitness nodes and make an arguably stronger build, but this should be a good example of how to approach a build. Think 5 to 10 levels ahead, and see what those points can get you on the spot, as well as what other options they open up for you.

So I'll leave you with a question. Blood magic is great because it lets you cast with a resource (health) that regenerates by a scaling percent of its maximum value. Knowing that you'll be using your hitpoints to do all your combat casting, do you think you need more % hp regeneration, and how can you adapt your build to get it?

Thanks everyone for the feedback! This community really is great im extremely impressed. After finally reaching blood magic i've kind of hit a bit of a snag.. how do i cast aura's without losing a large portion of my health due to the mana(health) reserved for the different aura's? i know there is a mana reduction support gem but i would still think if i ran anymore than 1 aura i would be screwed.. I'm thinking i need to rethink my decision to do blood magic=/. Thanks again everyone for the advice I love how you can immerse yourself in this, "skill forest." =]

On Blood Magic and auras:

I'm also pretty new to the game, only started about a week ago. What auras are you running? My mara has Blood Magic and I run Anger and Grace. If you have a lot of regen you could probably do Hatred, but 30% is a lot of life to reserve - I'm steering clear of that one for now.